THE IMPENETRABLE SEA 



porpoises and fourteen seals. The best known species, 

 Orcinus orca^ inhabits all seas. Another species in found in 

 the South Pacific. Others have been described with 

 doubtful validity. 



This preliminary description of the killer whale gives 

 us a mental picture of whales as monsters of the sea who 

 are attacked from without and within — by man, in his 

 continuous slaughterings of them for the valuable com- 

 mercial products which they yield, and by their own kind, 

 the killers, which are even more ruthless and blood- 

 thirsty. 



Working in packs, like the wolves of the sea that they 

 are, the killers will chase a school of porpoises or a huge 

 group of eels and work their way through it, from the 

 rear to the front, voraciously eating numbers of their 

 victims as they proceed. They will violently attack and 

 smash small boats, and devour anything that falls into 

 the water from them. On some occasions they have split 

 ice-floes a foot and a half thick by striking them with 

 their heads and backs. 



John Craig and Ernie Crockett, two fishmen with ex- 

 ceptional experience as underwater hunters, were shoot- 

 ing undersea pictures near a grotto coral formation in 

 fifty feet of water oflf Cedros Island, shortly before the 

 last war, with the aid of a Mexican named Antonio, 

 when they had an uncomfortable experience with a 

 killer. Crockett was down under, wearing a helmet which 

 gave him telephonic communication with the other two 

 on the surface. Suddenly, the Mexican turned to Craig 

 with an ashen face — he was wearing the phone head- 

 piece — and said, ''Johnee, he's got a killer whale!" 

 Craig, kneeling there on the deck, could hardly believe 

 it. Killers seldom came near the shore, except when very 

 hungry. But Craig looked down towards the beach and 

 saw a herd of seals there — he realized the Mexican's 

 words were true. 



Crockett had gone into the cave, and had been explor- 



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