Introduction

In vain it was to rake for amber grease in the paunch of this leviathan, insufferable feeder. It turned out to be one of those problematical whales that seem to dry up and die with a sort of prodigious dyspepsia or indigestion,. leaving their defunct bodies almost entirely bankrupt of anything like oil. So intolerable is it indeed regarded by some that no cupidity could persuade them to moor alongside of it.