196 CHANNEL ISLANDS OF CALIFORNIA 



away before it and into the kelp, the whales following 

 in as far as they could. 



"You see," explained the sailor, "the whales took 

 the vessel for some kind of a whale. Any one wUl 

 tell you of the big bull whale that fell in love with the 

 ship Marco, and followed her from 'Frisco to Chile in 

 South America, never leaving her day or night. The 

 whale thought he had struck a mate and stayed by the 

 ship, in good weather and bad, for over five thousand 

 miles, from the north temperate to the south temper- 

 ate, hot and cold. As a rule, whales don't take to the 

 equator or hot water, but nothing could stop this 

 whale. 



"The animal was sighted after the vessel left the 

 Farallones, and was a sulphur-bottom about sixty- 

 seven feet long — pretty near as big as the ship. He 

 generally swam along the weather quarter, or just 

 under the rudder, once in a while running alongside 

 and scraping his back against the bottom. These sort 

 of love pats is what first attracted the attention of the 

 crew. The ship gave a sort of list, and lurched to 

 lee'ard, trembhng like; such a peculiar motion that 

 the watch who had turned in came hurrying up on 

 deck. The skipper thought it was an earthquake; 

 some thought the vessel had struck a rock, and others 

 that a swordfish had rammed her. 



"The next day the big whale was seen swimming 

 alongside again, and every attempt was made to get 

 rid of him; but it was of no use. The men fired guns 

 at him that took effect; they seared his sides with 

 coals from the galley as he lay alongside on calm days, 

 and filled the water with oil in desperate efforts to 

 disgust and frighten him; but the whale never lost 



