THE PELICAN. 369 



evidently in a state of alarm, and it was equally evident that 

 a prodigious flight of Gulls, Gannets, and all the host of sea- 

 birds, were aware of what might happen, as they hovered over 

 the spot screaming, and now and then darting irregularly 

 downwards to within a yard or two of the surface. As the 

 whale closed upon the shoal, agitation seemed to increase, 

 judging by the increased excitement of the birds above. His 

 long black back slowly rose, and disappeared as the huge 

 animal rolled onwards, seldom descending so far below as to 

 bury his back-fin, which rippled along the surface ; at length 

 he was in the midst of them, and the confusion was complete. 

 At one moment he disappeared altogether ; but though unseen 

 by us, it was very clear, by a momentary elevation of an actual 

 mass of herrings above the water, that the poor frightened 

 creatures had closed within the smallest compass, and by the 

 upheaving struggles of the lower stratum of the shoal, were 

 thus unwillingly exposed to greater dangers in another 

 element ; for, availing themselves of this eventful moment, 

 down came the birds with one simultaneous pounce upon the 

 dense mass. Shortly after, the dark fin would again appear, 

 and a bright jet of glistening foam, rising like a fountain, 

 announced that the animal was under the necessity of breath- 

 ing or blowing after his labours. Then again he would descend 

 headlong, with a sort of recruited spring, exhibiting nearly his 

 whole body, and giving the water a tremendous lash with his 

 tail as it disappeared. The sound produced by this crash upon 

 the waves was astounding enough in itself, but the effect of 

 the blow was far more so ; for whether, by a sort of sculling 

 motion, it scooped and threw a mass of herrings upwards with 

 a jerk, or whether they were fairly driven from the water with 

 the cloud of foam which followed the blow, the air for some 

 feet above the water was spangled with bright specks of 

 herrings, on which the united host of birds again pounced, 

 forming one mingled mass of herrings, sea-fowl, and foam. 



Of the voracity and capacious stomach of the Pelican, as 

 well as of his pouch, we have spoken before (p. 44). Of this 

 the Chinese take advantage, and train a species of Pelican 01 



2 A 



