The natural aptitude of the French for seizing the picturesqueness
of things seems to be peculiarly evinced in what paintings
and engravings they have of their whaling scenes.
With not one tenth of England's experience in the fishery,
and not the thousandth part of that of the Americans, they have
nevertheless furnished both nations with the only finished sketches
at all capable of conveying the real spirit of the whale hunt.
For the most part, the English and American whale draughtsmen
seem entirely content with presenting the mechanical
outline of things, such as the vacant profile of the whale;
which, so far as picturesqueness of effect is concerned,
is about tantamount to sketching the profile of a pyramid.
Even Scoresby, the justly renowned Right whaleman,
after giving us a stiff full length of the Greenland whale,
and three or four delicate miniatures of narwhales and porpoises,
treats us to a series of classical engravings of boat hooks,
chopping knives, and grapnels; and with the microscopic diligence
of a Leuwenhoeck submits to the inspection of a shivering world
ninety-six fac-similes of magnified Arctic snow crystals.
I mean no disparagement to the excellent voyager (I honor him
for a veteran), but in so important a matter it was certainly
an oversight not to have procured for every crystal a sworn
affidavit taken before a Greenland Justice of the Peace.
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