and when boiled, to purify it, composes the common
oil, which is applied to so many useful purposes. The remains of this
vast body are left a prey to other fish and to the Greenlanders, who
carefully collect every fragment which they can find, and apply it to
their own use. Sometimes they go to pursue the whale themselves, but
when they do, it is in large numbers, and they attack him nearly in the
same manner as the Europeans do, only, as they are not so well supplied
with cord, they fix the skins of seals, which they have inflated with
air, to the end of the thongs which are tied to their harpoons, and this
serves both to weary out the fish, who drags them with him under the
water, and to discover him the instant he approaches to the surface.

_Harry._--I cannot help pitying the poor whale that is thus persecuted
for the sake of his spoils. Why cannot man let this poor beast live
unmolested in the midst of the snows and ice in which he was born?

_Mr Barlow._--You ought to know enough of the world to be sensible that
the desire of gain will tempt men upon every expedition. However, in
this case you must consider that the whale himself is continually
supported by murdering thousands of herrings and other small fish; so
that, were they possessed of reason, they would welcome the Europeans,
who came to destroy their enemies, as friends and benefactors.

_Tommy._--But pray, sir, how do the little boys amuse themselves in such
a dismal country? Do their fathers take them out a-fishing with them?

_Mr Barlow._--When the men come home all covered with wet and icicles,
and sit down comfortably in their huts to feast upon the prey, their
common conversation is about the dangers and accidents they have met
with in their expedition. A Greenlander relates how he bounded over the
waves to surprise the monstrous seal; how he pierced the animal with his
harpoon, who had nearly dragged the boat with him under the water; how
he attacked him again in closer combat; how the beast, enraged with his
wounds, rushed upon him in order to destroy him with his teeth; and how,
in the end, by courage and perseverance, he triumphed over his
adversary, and brought it safe to land. All this will he relate with the
vehemence and interest which people naturally feel for things which
concern them nearly; he stands in the midst of his countrymen, and
describes every minute circumstance of his adventures; the little
children gather round, and greedily