"Scarcely had we proceeded two days on the sea, when about sunrise a great many Whales and other monsters of the sea, appeared. Among the former, one was of a most monstrous size. * * This came towards us, open-mouthed, raising the waves on all sides, and beating the sea before him into a foam." Tooke's Lucian.
"The True History."
"He visited this country also with a view of catching horse-whales, which had bones of very great value for their teeth, of
which he brought some to the king. * * * The best
whales were catched in his own country, of which some were
forty-eight, some fifty yards long. He said that he was one of
six who had killed sixty in two days."
Other or Octher's verbal narrative taken down from his mouth by King Alfred. A. D. 890.
"And whereas all the other things, whether beast or vessel, that enter into the dreadful gulf of this monster's (whale's) mouth, are immediately lost and swallowed up, the sea-gudgeon retires into it in great security, and there sleeps." Montaigne.—Apology for Raimond Sebond.
"Let us fly, let us fly! Old Nick take me if it is not Leviathan described by the noble prophet Moses in the life of patient Job." Rabelais.
"This whale's liver was two cart-loads." Stowe's Annals.
"The great Leviathan that maketh the seas to seethe like boiling pan." Lord Bacon's Version of the Psalms.
"Touching that monstrous bulk of the whale or ork we have received nothing certain. They grow exceeding fat, insomuch that an incredible quantity of oil will be extracted out of one whale." Ibid "History of Life and Death."
