als floating in the water on which it feeds.
Each side of bone consists of upwards of three hundred laminae, the
interior edges of which are covered with a fringe of hair. Ten or
twelve feet is the average size. In young whales, called "suckers," it
is only a few inches long. When it is above six feet, the whale is said
to be of _size_, a term I have before used.

The tongue of the whale is very large; it has a beard, and a very narrow
throat. While I was handing a blubber-spade to old David, as I looked
over the side of the boat, I saw a pair of bright green eyes glancing up
at me with such a knowing, wicked look, that I drew back with a shudder,
thinking it was some uncommon monster of the deep, who was watching for
an opportunity to carry one of us off.

"What is it now, youngster? Have you bit your nose?" asked David,
laughing.

"No," I replied breathlessly. "Look there--what is that?" I pointed
out the eyes, which were still glaring up at me.

"That--why that, my green lad, is only a blind shark. Have not you ever
seen one of them before?"

"Only a shark!" I exclaimed with horror, remembering all I had heard
about sharks. "Won't he eat one?"

"No, not he; but just run a boat-hook into him, and try and drive him
away, for he's drawing five shillings' worth of oil out of the fish
every mouthful he takes, the glutton," said David.

I did as I was desired; but though the point ran right into his body, he
only shifted his post a little, and made a fresh attack directly under
the stern of the boat. I again wounded him; but he was either so
engaged with gorging himself, or so insensible to pain, that he
continued with his nose against the side of the whale, eating away as
before.

I afterwards learned that this Greenland shark is not really blind,
though the sailors think so because it shows no fear at the sight of
man. The pupil of the eye is emerald green; the rest of it is blue,
with a white worm-shaped substance on the outside. This one was upwards
of ten feet in length, and in form like a dog-fish. It is a great foe
to the whale, biting and annoying him even when alive; and by means of
its peculiarly-shaped mouth and teeth it can scoop out of its body
pieces as large as a man's head.

But the most persevering visitors during the operation of flensing were
the sailors' little friends the Mollies. The moment the fish was struck
they had begun to assemble, and they were now pecking and tearing