120 HUNTING THE SEA OTTER. 



its dead body, of which the swordfish only devoured 

 the tongue. 



Now, by the name " schwertfische," the Germans express 

 both the swordfish (Xiphias gladius] and the killer 

 (Delphinus orca], while the corresponding Dutch word, 

 " swaardfisch," as well as the Danish and Swedish " svard- 

 fisk," have these two misleading significations. Hence 

 Martens' mistake. The swordfish is neither gregarious nor 

 carnivorous, nor could it devour a whale's tongue. How- 

 ever the mistake arose, it has been perpetuated to the 

 present day, even by Yarrell (Vol. I., p. 144). The 

 antagonism of the " killer " to the whale was well known in 

 early times. Pliny tells us (Lib. X., cap. 15) that when the 

 whales (Balaena) seek shelter in the bays to bring forth 

 their young, the orcas, a species of animal inimical to the 

 whale, chase them on to the shores or kill them in the 

 narrow seas. In the celebrated Icelandic Konigspiegel 

 (the mirror of royalty), written in the twelfth century, the 

 only writings of the Middle Ages in which the cetaceans 

 are alluded to, they are thus described : " In their cruelty 

 against other cetaceans they are like dogs against other 

 animals, herding together and attacking great whales ; and 

 where there is only one great whale they bite and weary it 

 out until it gets its death thereof." 



The difficulties attending the identification of ocean life, 

 other than that in the capture of which we were engaged, 

 were very great; the strong currents, the generally- 

 inapproachable nature of the shores on which anything 

 might be cast, the frequent fogs and storms, and the 

 continual state of watchfulness necessary for self-preserva- 

 tion gave little scope for such observations. The shore, 

 shrouded in misty vapour, gave no indication of its 

 proximity, a sudden change of the .wind would sometimes 

 deceive the ear by deadening in some degree the loud 

 thunder of the surf, and it was only when heaved high 

 ,upon the crest of some giant roller, whose arching crest 

 and thin green sides told of its approaching dissolution, 



