bottom of a ship. As this happened at a Roman seaport, the Roman emperor, whose name was Claudius, at the head of his guard, embarked in certain galleys, and with this well-manned and warlike fleet, was fortunate enough to be able to surround the orca, subdue, kill, and make it a complete capture; though not without the loss of one galley, which was swamped by the water that the fish threw from its spoutholes. What a story for the Roman cockneys!

As for me, I look upon this whole Roman story to have no more truth in it than the tale of the Roman army being stopped on its march, amid the sands of Africa, by a mighty serpent.

This exploit of the Emperor Claudius ought to be compared only with that of Sir Guy of Warwick, who, English people say, killed a

What is the story about Claudius and the orca?

What does Parley say of that story?

Does Parley compare it with the story of the serpent which stopped the Roman army in Africa?

Does Parley laugh at both the stories?

land-monster, called the Dun Cow, of Dunmore Heath. Sir Guy had slain, in his time, a giant and a dragon; but these actions were not equal to that of killing the dun cow. The old ballad

says,

"On Dunmore Heath, I also slew

A monstrous wild and cruel beast,
Called the Dun Cow of Dunmore Heath,
Which many people had opprest!"

The fishery of the black or Greenland whale gives employment to several thousand British seamen, and to a large amount of shipping, with its shipwrights, sail-makers, and numerous other people ashore; and, taking the last twenty years all together, has annually produced between eleven and twelve thousand tons of oil, and from five to six hundred tons of whalebone.

At present, however, the fishery has greatly declined. Driven away by the continual persecution of the fishermen, the whales have fled

Does Parley compare the exploit of Claudius with that of Sir Guy of Warwick?

from all those accessible parts of the Spitzbergen Sea, where it was formerly not unusual to see from sixty to seventy sail of British vessels in full employment during the season.

After the desertion of the Spitzbergen Sea, the east side of Baffin's Bay, as far as lat. 72° north, still afforded, for a few years, the capture of whales of considerable size.

Still, however, retreating westward, before the harpoons of their pursuers, the whales next withdrew beyond what was till lately considered the impenetrable barrier of ice, which occupies the middle of Baffin's Bay.

In the year 1818, the supposed barrier was sailed through by an expedition for the discovery of the North-west Passage; and thus the further haunts of the whale, and nurseries of its young ones, were laid open to the fishers, who speedily followed the discovery-ships, and made large profits, for a time, in their new scene of action. Those profits, in one year, have been more than

sufficient to repay England for its expenses in all the expeditions that have been sent.

But the black whale is even still retiring from the seas visited by the fishermen, and it may become necessary to fish for whales in still colder latitudes.

The ice has latterly come much further down from the northward, than has been known for the last twenty-five or even thirty years. Several English ships have been surrounded by it; and fears are entertained that their crews may perish, not so much from cold, as from famine. Attempts will be made, no doubt, to convey stores to them from England.

CHAP. XLV.

ABOUT GAL

PARLEY TELLS MORE ABOUT VARIOUS KINDS OF SEA-VES-
SELS. ABOUT YACHTS. THE YACHT-CLUB.
LEYS AND HULKS.

I MUST here make a change in the account I am giving you, lest you should grow tired. A little variety suits us all. If we were always to sit down to the same dish we should not like it, however excellent it might be; it is exactly the same with a story too long dwelt upon.

I have now done with whales, and with all things which prey upon whales; and I will now return (as I gave you reason to think I might) to some other kinds of sea-vessels than those which I before mentioned. I said, for example, that I might have talked of CUTTERS, and I will do so now. I will show you the figure of a SAILING-CUTTER; for cutter is also the name given to different kinds of light boats, intended