showed
that he had nothing in common with a fish, but a somewhat similar form,
and an equal necessity for abundance of the pure liquid element.

WHALEBONE.

A thin old man, with a rag-bag in his hand, was picking up a number of
small pieces of whalebone, which lay on the street. The deposit was of
such a singular nature, that we asked the quaint-looking gatherer how he
supposed they came there? "Don't know," he replied, in a squeaking
voice; "but I s'pect some unfortunate female was _wrecked_ hereabout
somewhere."[282]

* * * * *

A Scotch lady, who was discomposed by the introduction of gas, asked
with much earnestness, "What's to become o' the _puir whales_?' deeming
their interests materially affected by this superseding of their
oil."[283]

VERY LIKE A WHALE.

The first of all the royal infant males
Should take the title of the Prince of _Wales_:
Because, 'tis clear to seamen and to lubber,
Babies and _whales_ are both inclined to _blubber_.[284]

CHRISTOPHER NORTH ON THE WHALE.

_Tickler._ What fish, James, would you incline to be, if put into
scales?

_Shepherd._ A dolphin: for they hae the speed o' lichtnin. They'll dart
past and roun' about a ship in full sail before the wind, just as if she
was at anchor. Then the dolphin is a fish o' peace,--he saved the life
o' a poet of auld, Arion, wi' his harp,--and oh! they say the cretur's
beautifu' in death. Byron, ye ken, comparin' his hues to those o' the
sun settin' ahint the Grecian isles. I sud like to be a dolphin.

* * * * *

_Shepherd._ Let me see--I sud hae nae great objections to be a whale in
the Polar Seas. Gran' fun to fling a boatfu' o' harpooners into the
air--or, wi' ae thud o' your tail, to drive in the stern posts o' a
Greenlandman.

_Tickler._ Grander fun still, James, to feel the inextricable harpoon in
your blubber, and to go snoving away beneath an ice-floe with four miles
of line connecting you with your distant enemies.

_Shepherd._ But, then, whales marry but ae wife, and are passionately
attached to their offspring. There they and I are congenial speerits.
Nae fish that swims enjoys so large a share of domestic happiness.

_Tickler._ A whale, James, is not a fish.

_Shepherd._ Isna he? Let him alane for that. He's ca'd a fish in the
Bible, and that's better authority than Buffon. Oh that I were a
whale![285]

* * * *