A

Difference between Rational Conjecture and Melancholy Fact.

of fatal epidemics and more than ordinary dangers, but I never yet have met with one permanently reformed and brought to repentance by seeing others drowned and die before his eyes, and by what would seem to be the natural consideration of danger in his own case.

So true it is, in the words of the preacher, The heart of the sons of men is full of evil; madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead. As the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it cometh suddenly upon them. As an old poet hath it,

Such is the state of every mortal wight'

In health our glories and our lusts we show;
We fill ourselves with every vain delight,
And will least think of that which may ensue.

But let us learn to heed as well as know,

That spring doth pass, that summer steals away,
And that the flower which makes the fairest show,

Ere many weeks may wither and decay.
The stoutest form that walks the earth to-day,

To-morrow with the dead may senseless lay!

Experience of the Royal Bounty. Chronic Chase of a Whale.

CHAPTER XIV.

REMARKABLE EVENTS IN THE ANNALS OF WHALING.

O'er the deep! o'er the deep!

Where the whale, and the shark, and the sword-fish sleep:

On the craggy ice, in the frozen air,

Heedless of dangers if game be but there,

Encountering all the great whale to snare.-Anon.

THE

HE prodigious speed and strength of the gigantic whale, and the resulting danger to his captors referred to, in general terms, in the last chapter, are practically illustrated by two remarkable incidents, occurring, the one in the English, and the other in the American whale fishery.

On the 28th of May, 1817, the Royal Bounty, an English ship, fell in with a great number of whales in seventy degrees twenty-five minutes north latitude, and longitude five degrees east. There was neither ice nor land in sight. The boats were manned and sent in pursuit, and after a chase of five hours, one of them, which had rowed out of sight of the ship,

Incredible Brute Strength.

Harnessing it to the Ship.

struck one of the whales. This was about four o'clock in the morning. The captain directed the course of the ship to the point where he had last seen the boats, and about eight o'clock got sight of one, which displayed the signal of being fast. Soon after, another boat approached the first, and struck a second harpoon; and by midday two more harpoons were made fast.

But such was the astonishing vigor of this whale, that although it constantly dragged through the water from four to six boats, together with sixteen hundred fathoms of line, yet it pursued its flight nearly as fast as a boat could row, and whenever one passed beyond its tail it would dive. All endeavors to lance it were therefore vain, and the crews of the loose boats moored to those that were fast, the whale all the time steadily towing them on.

At eight o'clock in the evening a line was taken to the ship, with a view of retarding its flight, and topsails were lowered, but the harpoon drew. In three hours another line was taken on board, which immediately snapped. At four in the afternoon of the next day, thirtysix hours after the whale was first struck, two of the fast lines were taken on board the ship.