Respectively, they represent attacks on the Sperm
and Right Whale. In the first engraving a noble Sperm Whale
is depicted in full majesty of might, just risen beneath the boat
from the profundities of the ocean, and bearing high in the.
air upon his back the terrific wreck of the stoven planks.
The prow of the boat is partially unbroken, and is drawn just
balancing upon the monster's spine; and standing in that prow,
for that one single incomputable flash of time, you behold
an oarsman, half shrouded by the incensed boiling spout of
the whale, and in the act of leaping, as if from a precipice.
The action of the whole thing is wonderfully good and true.
The half-emptied line-tub floats on the whitened sea;
the wooden poles of the spilled harpoons obliquely bob in it;
the heads of the swimming crew are scattered about the whale
in contrasting expressions of affright; while in the black
stormy distance the ship is bearing down upon the scene.
Serious fault might be found with the anatomical details
of this whale, but let that pass; since, for the life of me,
I could not draw so good a one.
In the second engraving, the boat is in the act of drawing alongside
the barnacled flank of a large running Right Whale, that rolls
his black weedy bulk in the sea like some mossy rock-slide from
the Patagonian cliffs.
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