The Whale

An animal called the leviathan is described in one of the last chapters of Job, which somesuppose to be the whale. It certainly means a large and strong animal, as you will see by thequestions asked about him: "Canst thou draw out leviathan with a hook ? or his tongue with acord which thou lettest down? Canst thou put a hook in his nose ? or bore his jaw through with athorn? Wilt thou play with him as with a bird? When he raiseth himself up, the mighty areafraid. The arrow cannot make him flee; he laugheth at the shaking of a spear; he maketh thedeep to boil like a pot; one would think the deep to be hoary." This is like the whale in somethings; but you will remember that it is not certain that he is meant.

The common whale for which so many sailors are always seeking on the great ocean, is anenormous animal. It is often found seventy feet long; and it is said that they have been found ofthe length of a hundred feet. If you do not know how long this would be, you will do well to asksome friend to tell you of a building or something else with which you can compare it; for it isnot very likely that you will ever see the whale itself, and its size is very wonderful. It is coveredwith a coat of fat, sometimes more than a yard thick; and when this is cut up and put over fires ingreat kettles, a hundred barrels of oil are sometimes obtained from a single whale.

Perhaps you already know how they take the whale. As soon as the sailors see one, they gotowards him in a boat until they get as near to him as they dare. Then they throw their harpoonsat him; these are sharp-pointed irons, fastened to a very long rope, one end of which they keep inthe boat. As soon as the whale is wounded, he dives down into the water, and swims away tosome distance. He is usually obliged to come up again in about half an hour to breathe, for hecannot live all the while under water; and then the men throw other harpoons at him. Sometimeshe comes so near as to upset the boat with a blow of his strong tail. The picture shows you ascene of this kind, where the boat was tossed into the air, the men thrown out, and one of themdrowned.

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