[Illustration: DANGERS OF THE WHALE FISHERY.] CATCHING OF THE WHALE AND SEAL; OR, HENRY ACTON’S CONVERSATION TO HIS SON WILLIAM ON THE Whale and Seal Fishery. WITH PLATES. [Illustration] Salem: PUBLISHED BY IVES AND JEWETT. NEW YORK: GOULD AND NEWMAN. 1838. ANDOVER: Gould & Newman, Printers. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. THE DIFFERENT AND MOST REMARKABLE SPECIES OF THE WHALE TRIBE, &c. CHAPTER II. FOOD OF WHALES, AND THEIR MANNER OF OBTAINING IT, &c. CHAPTER III. THE TAKING OF A WHALE WITH HER YOUNG, &c. CHAPTER IV. BOATS—HAND HARPOON—BLUBBER LANCE—GUN HARPOON—ACCIDENTS—DANGERS OF THE NORTHERN FISHERY, &c. CHAPTER V. PROCEEDINGS AFTER A WHALE IS KILLED. CHAPTER VI. THE DIFFERENT SPECIES OF SEALS—THE FISHERY ON THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC, &c. NATURAL HISTORY OF THE WHALE. CHAPTER I. THE DIFFERENT AND MOST REMARKABLE SPECIES OF THE WHALE TRIBE. “Nature’s strange work, vast Whales of different form, Toss up the troubled flood, and are themselves a storm. Uncouth the sight, when they, in dreadful play, Discharge their nostrils, and refund a sea.”