THE GRAMPUS. 39I 



Grampus was captured nearly opposite Greenwich Hospital in 1772, and 

 was so swift and powerful, that after it had been struck with three har- 

 poons, and covered with lance wounds, it twice dragged the boat from 

 Blackwall to Greenwich, and once ran as far as Deptford, going at a 

 rate of eight miles per hour against the tide. The struggles of the 

 wounded animal were so formidable, that none of the boats could 

 approach it. .Several other specimens of this animal have been caught 

 in the same river at dififerent times, one being twenty-four feet in length, 

 and another measuring more than thirty feet. 



The Killer is not onl)- the largest, but the boldest, most rapacious 

 and voracious, most blood-thirsty and dreaded of all the Delphinidae. It 

 deser\'es the title bestowed on it by Linneeus of " The Tyrant of the 

 Whales," and exceeds even the shark in the devastation it creates 

 wherever it appears. Its extraordinary voracity compels it to approach 

 the coasts, but its favorite hunting-grounds are where the white whale 

 is found. These robbers of the seas are also fond of amusing themselves 

 by mobbing the Greenland whale, just as the little birds mob owls 

 when they venture forth in the daytime, and they persecute it by leaping 

 out of the water and striking it sharply with their tails as they descend. 

 The Americans, in consequence, have called it by the name of Thresher, 

 or Killer. Captain Scott relates that he has often seen the Thresher 

 engaged m this strange combat. Scammon writes : " The attack of 

 these wolves of the ocean on their gigantic prey was like that of a pack of 

 dogs on a deer. Some hung on to the head of the whale, others attacked 

 it from below, others seized it by the lips, and if it opened its mouth, 

 tore its tongue. In 1858 I was eye-witness of a combat between three 

 grampuses and a whale and her calf; the calf was three times the size of 

 the largest grampus. The latter charged the whales alternately, and 

 slew the young whale after a combat of an hour's duration. During the 

 course of the struggle the strength of the mother was nearlj^ exhausted, 

 and she had received several severe wounds in the breast and on the 

 lips." Even harpooned whales are attacked by this sea-murderer and 

 dragged under water, in spite of all the fishermen can do to prevent it. 



The Cape Killer, Orca Capensis, called also the " South Sea Gram- 

 pus," is frequently noticed in the Pacific Ocean. They occur in herds, 

 and their appearance is supposed to indicate the resorts of the sperm 

 whales. They are less in size, but similar in other respects to the 

 common grampus. 



