Page:Colnett - Voyage to the South Pacific (IA cihm 33242).djvu/123

 on the coat before; and at this time the hump-back whale was o much larger than generally believed, and pouted in a manner o different from their uual mode of throwing up the water, that the mot experienced fihermen I had on board believed them to be black whale, and purued them as uch; and I very much doubt whether that pecies of whale, which the Spaniards call the mall whale, is any other than black fih. This opinion was confirmed by a whaler, with whom I fell in company ome time after. He had come down the coat of California, and boated of the number of permaceti whales which he had een. I was very much atonihed that, provided as he was for the purpoe, he had not even attempted to kill one of them. But he oon atisfied my doubts on the ubject: for being with me on board the Rattler, and eeing a hoal of black fih, he inited that they were permaceti whales. While I thus dicovered his ignorance, I had reaon to be atisfied with myelf, in having been able to acertain, from the deck of my hip, the difference between thee two pecies of whale, but this I mut acknowledge, that black fih, in their feeding and mode of pouting, reemble the permaceti whale nearer than any other fih hitherto known.