round it, embraced it with her fins, and sometimes rolled over with it
in the waves.

The men in the boats now rowed a-head of the whales, and drove them back
among the rocks, at which the mother evinced great uneasiness and
anxiety; she swam round and round the young one in lessening circles;
but all her care was unheeded, and the inexperienced calf soon met its
fate. It was struck and killed, and a harpoon fixed in the mother, when,
roused to reckless fury, she flew on one of the boats, and made her tail
descend with such tremendous force on the very centre of it, as to cut
it in two, and kill two of the men, the rest swimming in all directions
for their lives.

[Illustration: A SHIP TOWED TO LAND BY BULLOCKS.]




SHIP TOWED TO LAND BY BULLOCKS


Swimming is a manly exercise, and one in which, under proper care, every
little boy ought to be instructed. In the first place it is a very
healthy and invigorating practice frequently to immerse the body in
water: and when we recollect how often the knowledge of this art has
been blessed by the Supreme Disposer of events as a means of saving his
rational creatures from sudden death, it seems that to neglect this
object is almost to refuse to avail ourselves of one of the means of
safety, which a kind Providence has placed within our reach.