The Drawbacks of Ease 57 



True, their enemies, which are practically the same 

 as those of the right whale, do occasionally overtake 

 and destroy them ; but unlike their gigantic cousins, 

 they have great speed and agility, and consequently 

 are far better able to defend themselves, to do so, in 

 fact, most successfully in numbers of cases. Like the 

 right whales, too, like all whales, in fact, they are 

 grievously afflicted by many parasites, and it has even 

 been suggested that their almost frantic gambols are 

 indulged in in the hope of ridding their skins of these 

 irritating hangers-on. But that I do not believe. When 

 the Humpback finds his load of barnacles, limpets, 

 and slimy sea-grass unbearable, he hies him to the 

 nearest rocky bottom of coral reef, and there drags his 

 vast body slowly to and fro over the spiky surface, 

 chafing off a great number of his unwelcome guests and 

 no doubt experiencing many a delicious thrill from that 

 superlative scratching while doing so. 



In one particular, however, he is handicapped in 

 getting rid of his parasites. His belly blubber is 

 divided into longitudinal folds, or rugae, lying closely 

 and tightly together, and with a depth in these grooves 

 of over a couple of inches. Limpets breed in these snug 

 places, and there, secure from dislodgment, since the 

 folds cling so tightly together that the hand can hardly 

 be forced between them, they reach a size unknown 

 elsewhere. I have repeatedly seen limpets as large as 

 a horse's hoof in the rugosities of a Humpback's belly. 

 But these, after all, are minor evils, not for one moment 

 to be weighed against the many joys of the Humpback's 

 life. Amiable, fondest of parents, content to play 

 about the beautiful shores of the most beautiful islands 

 in the world, and Immune from the attack of man 

 everywhere, except among the shallow reefs, when 

 the mothers seek them for protection. Even that 



