not even at the present day has the original prestige of the sperm whale, as fearfully distinguished from all other species of the leviathan, died out of the minds of the whalemen as a body. there are those this day among them, who, though intelligent and courageous enough in offering battle to the greenland or right whale, would perhaps—either from professional inexperience, or incompetency, or timidity, decline a contest with the sperm whale; at any rate, there are plenty of whalemen, especially among those whaling nations not sailing under the american flag, who have never hostilely encountered the sperm whale, but whose sole knowledge of the leviathan is restricted to the ignoble monster primitively pursued in the north; seated on their hatches, these men will hearken with a childish fireside interest and awe, to the wild, strange tales of southern whaling. nor is the pre-eminent tremendousness of the great sperm whale anywhere more feelingly comprehended, than on board of those prows which stem him.