white and yellow; which running over the surface has a very beautiful effect. The outer skin of the whale is no thicker than parchment, but the real skiņ beneath is about an inch thick, and covers the fat or blubber, which is the most valuable part of the whale, as that from which lamp-oil is produced in amazing quantities. It is from ten to twelve inches in thickness, and, when the animal is in health, is of a beautiful yellow colour. The cleft of the mouth is about twenty feet long, or nearly one-third of the animal's whole length; the upper jaw is furnished with barbs, which lie like the pipes of an organ, and which rather resemble the calashes worn by ladies; the shortest of these are about ten feet long, the longest are about eighteen: these compose the well-known article called whalebone. Two strong bones sustain the upper lip, lying against each other in the shape of a half-moon. The tongue is almost immoveably fixed to the lower jaw, and appears one great lump of fat; in fact, it yields several hogsheads of blubber. The eyes of this stupendous creature are not larger than those of an ox, and the crystalline humour, when dried, does not appear larger than a pea; they are placed towards the back of the head, as most conveniently enabling them to see both before and behind, as also to see above them, where their food is principally found. Whales have generally no teeth; they are nourished by a froth which they suck in from the sea, and by some small sea-animals, chiefly the medusa, a small black insect, of the size of a bean, which is seen

floating in clusters on the water; yet some species of whales have teeth, and in their bellies have been found thirty or forty cod-fish.

In the middle of the head is a hole or nostril, through which the animal spouts out the water, which it sucked in while gaping for its prey; this it throws up to a great height, and with considerable noise. The whale has the senses of seeing and hearing in very great perfection, by which it is enabled quickly to discern the approach of danger, for notwithstanding its inoffensive nature, it is exposed to many

enemies.

These creatures discover an eminent superiority to fishes in general, and indeed to many other animals, in the manner in which they fill the conjugal and parental relations. Their fidelity to each other excels what we have heard even of the constancy of birds; "Some fishers having struck one of two whales, a male and female that were in company together, the wounded fish made a long and terrible resistance; with a single stroke of its tail, it struck down a boat in which were three men, by which all went to the bottom; the other still attended its companion, and lent it every assistance, till at last the fish that was struck sunk under the number of its wounds, while its faithful associate disdaining to survive the loss, with great bellowing stretched itself on the dead fish, and shared its fate."

Other fishes deposit their spawn, and leave the success to accident; but the cetaceous tribe, of which

the whale is the principal, bring forth their young alive, seldom more than one, or two at the most, and suckle them for a year in the same manner as quadrupeds. During the period of suckling, the mother is lean and emaciated, but the young ones are extremely fat, and, if taken, yield above fifty barrels of blubber.

Among the enemies of the whale are to be mentioned a small animal of the shell-fish kind, called the whale-louse, which insinuates itself under the fins, and adheres to the body of the animal in a most tormenting manner, notwithstanding all the efforts of the great animal to get rid of it; this little creature keeps its hold, and lives upon the fat, which it is well provided with instruments to arrive at. A second enemy of the whale is the sword-fish: at the sight of this little animal, the whale is agitated in a most extraordinary manner; perceiving its adversary at a distance, it leaps from the water in terror, and flies from it in an opposite direction: the whale pursues it with its tail, the only weapon of defence it possesses, and a single blow of which would effectually destroy its antagonist; but the activity of the swordfish is a match for the strength of the whale, and it easily avoids the stroke, then, bounding into the air, it falls upon the enemy, and endeavours not only to pierce with its pointed beak, but to cut with its toothed edges. The sea all about is soon dyed with blood, proceeding from the wounds of the whale, while the enormous animal vainly endeavours to reach the invader, and strikes with its tail against the surface

of the water, making a report at each blow louder than the noise of a cannon.

Another powerful enemy of the whale is called by the fishermen of New England the Killer. It is said to be itself an animal of the whale kind, but smaller, and armed with strong and powerful teeth. A number of these creatures surround the whale in the same manner as dogs beset a bull, until at last the great animal in torn down,

But, after all, the whale's chief enemy is man, who, for the sake of its valuable commodities, consisting of oil, whalebone, and spermaceti, has devised ingenious and laborious methods of quelling, and obtaining possession of, this powerful creature. Very interesting and entertaining accounts are given of the whale-fishery, which the young reader is recommended to peruse in Buffon's or any other natural history, or Crantz's History of the Greenlanders, among which people, as well as those near the southern pole, the flesh of the whale is eagerly sought for food, and the oil esteemed one of their chief delicacies; but as these accounts, however interesting in themselves, have no connexion with the references of Scripture, to which our limits principally confine us, we must forbear to enter upon them. The references of Scripture are not frequent, and of those few, several are supposed to intend the crocodile rather than the whale ; such, for instance, Ezek xxxii. 2. In that passage, however, as well as in Job vii. 12. is evidently intimated the supreme dominion of Providence, over the