Whales as the Whalers Knew Them 179 



struck from a boat others many miles distant 

 from the spot will almost instantaneously ex- 

 press by their action an apparent consciousness 

 of what has occurred, or at least of some untoward 

 event, and either make off in alarm, or come 

 down to the assistance of their injured companion. 

 But without attributing to the cachelot an ex- 

 traordinary acuteness of sight or hearing, or any 

 more mysterious sensibility, we may perhaps 

 find that the violent agitations of the sea produced 

 by the plunges of the harpooned whale, and the 

 more rapid and distinct conveyance of sound 

 in water than in air, are sufficient to account 

 for the above phenomenon." 



Other observers have declared that distant 

 whales have been alarmed when the stricken 

 whale made no excessive noise or unusual dis- 

 turbance in the water, and that the alarm was 

 conveyed to windward as well as to leeward. 

 Thus Davis says: 



"It is commonly conceded that whales have 

 a mysterious power of communicating with each 

 other, and instances are mentioned which, if 

 trustworthy, afford the strongest proof possible. 



