These are generally old bulls, which have become wise from experience, and give the whalers great trouble--sometimes carrying away several harpoons and lines.

The lower jaw of one old bull of this kind was found to be sixteen feet long, and it had forty-eight teeth, some of them a foot long.

A number of scars about his head showed that this fellow had been in the wars.

When two bull-whales take to fighting, their great effort is to catch each other by the lower jaw, and, when locked together, they struggle with a degree of fury that cannot be described.
It is not often that the sperm whale actually attacks a ship; but there are a few cases of this kind which cannot be doubted.

The following story is certainly true; and while it shows how powerful a creature the whale is, it also shows what terrible risk and sufferings the whaleman has frequently to encounter.
In the month of August, 1819, the American whaleship _Essex_ sailed from Nantucket for the Pacific Ocean.