This inhabitant of the deep is from twenty to twenty-five feet in
length, and seems to cherish a mortal spite against the whale. It
possesses the strong affection for its young common to this order. One
of the poems of Waller is founded upon the following incident: A
grampus in England, with her cub, once got into an arm of the sea,
where, by the desertion of the tide, they were enclosed on every side.
The men on shore saw their situation, and ran down upon them with such
weapons as they could at the moment collect. The poor animals were soon
wounded in several places, so that all the immediately surrounding
water was stained with their blood. They made many efforts to escape;
and the old one, by superior strength, forced itself over the shallow,
into a deep of the ocean. But though in safety herself, she would not
leave her young one in the hands of assassins. She therefore again
rushed in, and seemed resolved, since she could not prevent, at least
to share, the fate of her offspring: the tide coming in, however,
conveyed them both off in triumph.