of the Elbe, in the year 1728, of a shoal of seventeen of these whales. It was in the midst of a heavy storm of wind, and they were cast high upon the shore, and soon left wholly dry by the tide. The Cuxhaven fishermen, at their distant view, thought them the wrecked barks of brother fishermen. Putting to sea, and steering for the spot, they reached it, only to behold, with astonishment, even at the first ken, the seventeen carcasses of these huge fishes? If, bulk for bulk, the whales had really been sea-vessels, they found that their own barks would have seemed but as ships' boats to them, in the comparison! The gigantic masses, however, of these creatures were not the only sight that moved them. The whales were dead, but their bodies were still warm. All their heads lay to the northward, for in that direction, by an element still mightier than they, they had all been

What more does Parley tell about the high-finned cachalots that were stranded at the mouth of the Elbe?

thrown. Of the seventeen in number, nine were males, and eight were females. One cf the males, therefore, was without a female. Perhaps he had lost the one who attended him in the same storm, or in some other manner. But of the eight couple in addition, each consistec of a male and female, dead side by side! It you had seen this affecting sight, should you not have been sorry for the poor whales? The fishermen of Cuxhaven had braved the raging of the waters and the whistling of the winds, and steered their keels over the billows, and waded through the shoal water to the sands, and beheld, at last, these monstrous remains of living creatures; little prepared to close the whole with so affecting a spectacle! It might be daring, indeed, to say, of these rude pairs, which appear so unlovely to us, that "in their lives they were lovely;" but this, at least, was true,--that "in their deaths they were not divided."

It is fitting, my little friends, that

you should

hear of things like these; and especially so in the midst of our accounts of creatures that under many views are really terrible and hideous. It is fitting you should know that the creation of God is not a creation of monsters, or at least, that you should know its monsters are none of those unmixed creations of evil, which sometimes ignorance and prejudice present to the

mind.

Forget not Peter Parley's remark, that the world has no real monsters; no creatures, in all things, and under all views, evil; and were you creatures of that sort yourselves; were you without all good affections, instead of being like anything else in the world, you would be alone, and the sole monsters! The fisherman, that kills with his harpoon the whale, and his mate, and her young one, is a monster in respect of whales, and in his vocation; and yet the same

What moral does Parley draw from his story of the cachalots?

fisherman is a dutiful son, and an affectionate brother, a tender husband, and a doting father at his home; and so the spermaceti whale, monstrous in bulk and figure, greedy, fierce, and turbulent, has yet his tender feelings, his sagacious habits, and his strong attachments!

CHAP. XLIV.

PARLEY FINISHES HIS REMARKS ON WHALES.

I BEGIN to think that you have had quite enough about whales, and, therefore, I will bring my account of them to a close. All God's creatures are interesting to me, and this circumstance may perhaps sometimes lead me to dwell upon them longer than is pleasant to my young friends; I will, however, say but very little more about whales.

Now and then, I have told you some marvel

lous tale current in the world, which I knew was not true. This I have never done to deceive you, but only to put you in possession of some of the absurd notions which gain credit in the world. It is well to know what is true, and it is well also to know what silly tales pass with credulous people for truth.

I will here give you a wonderful story of a large fish called Orca, which had a high fin on its back. If you can believe the marvellous account, you will do what was never yet done by me. Some merchant-vessels had been wrecked in the storm, on their voyage back from Gaul, laden with cargoes of hides. The orca, it is said, had followed the wrecks, attracted by the hides; but, in reality, had perhaps been stranded in the storm, like the vessels themselves. This large fish being upon the shore, dug itself (by its struggles) a deep hollow in the sand; while, above the shallow water in which it still lay, its back stood up in size and appearance like the