The sperm whale, however, is dangerous at both ends.

His tail, though less elastic than that of the right whale, can deal a prodigious up-and-down blow, while his gigantic jaws, well garnished with sharp teeth, and capacious gullet, that readily could gulp down a man, are his chief terrors.

His eyes, too, set obliquely, enable him to command the sea at all points save dead ahead, and it is accordingly from this point that the fishermen approach him.

But however stealthily they move, the opportunities for disappointment are many.

Big as he is, the whale is not sluggish.