“The Spermacetti Whale found by the Nantuckois, is an active, fierce
animal, and requires vast address and boldness in the fishermen.” 
  —­THOMAS JEFFERSON’S WHALE MEMORIAL TO THE FRENCH MINISTER IN 1778.

  “And pray, sir, what in the world is equal to it?”
  —­EDMUND BURKE’S REFERENCE IN PARLIAMENT TO THE NANTUCKET WHALE-FISHERY.

  “Spain—­a great whale stranded on the shores of Europe.” 
  —­EDMUND BURKE. (SOMEWHERE.)

  “A tenth branch of the king’s ordinary revenue, said to be
grounded on the consideration of his guarding and protecting the seas from pirates and robbers, is the right to royal fish, which are whale and sturgeon.  And these, when either thrown ashore or caught near the coast, are the property of the king.” 
  —­BLACKSTONE.

    “Soon to the sport of death the crews repair: 
    Rodmond unerring o’er his head suspends
    The barbed steel, and every turn attends.” 
  —­FALCONER’S SHIPWRECK.

    “Bright shone the roofs, the domes, the spires,
      And rockets blew self driven,
    To hang their momentary fire
      Around the vault of heaven.

    “So fire with water to compare,
      The ocean serves on high,
    Up-spouted by a whale in air,
      To express unwieldy joy.” 
  —­COWPER, ON THE QUEEN’S VISIT TO LONDON.

  “Ten or fifteen gallons of blood are thrown out of the heart at a
stroke, with immense velocity.” 
  —­JOHN HUNTER’S ACCOUNT OF THE DISSECTION OF A WHALE. (A SMALL SIZED ONE.)

  “The aorta of a whale is larger in the bore than the main pipe of
the water-works at London Bridge, and the water roaring in its passage through that pipe is inferior in impetus and velocity to the blood gushing from the whale’s heart.” 
  —­PALEY’S THEOLOGY.

  “The whale is a mammiferous animal without hind feet.” 
  —­BARON CUVIER.

  “In 40 degrees south, we saw Spermacetti Whales, but did not take
any till the first of May, the sea being then covered with them.” 
  —­COLNETT’S VOYAGE FOR THE PURPOSE OF EXTENDING THE SPERMACETI
WHALE FISHERY.

    “In the free element beneath me swam,
    Floundered and dived, in play, in chace, in battle,
    Fishes of every color, form, and kind;
    Which language cannot paint, and mariner
    Had never seen; from dread Leviathan
    To insect millions peopling every wave: 
    Gather’d in shoals immense, like floating islands,
    Led by mysterious instincts through that waste
    And trackless region, though on every side
    Assaulted by voracious enemies,
    Whales, sharks, and monsters, arm’d in front or jaw,
    With swords, saws, spiral horns, or hooked fangs.” 
  —­MONTGOMERY’S WORLD BEFORE THE FLOOD.

    “Io!  Paean!  Io! sing. 
    To the finny people’s king. 
    Not a mightier whale than this
    In the vast Atlantic is;
    Not a fatter fish than he,
    Flounders round the Polar Sea.” 
  —­CHARLES LAMB’S TRIUMPH OF THE WHALE.