V ' Among the Sharks and Whales ' 419 



and baby are as happy together, and show as much, 

 if not more, mutual affection than is usually to be 

 found among ourselves. And if they don't amuse 

 each other very much, they pretend that they do, and 

 that is something to the good. Let me add, more- 

 over, that in case of trouble and danger they stick 

 to each other to the very last with the most touching 

 and tender self-sacrifice, as I may try to describe to 

 you some day ; not that I shall be able to do it, — 

 Shakespeare might have. 



I am also perfectly certain that some species of 

 whales have not only very strong family affections, 

 but that there exists among individuals of the same 

 sex a strong feeling of what we call ' friendship,' as 

 distinct from ' love,' — a willingness to render assist- 

 ance to a comrade in distress without the probability 

 of any recompense, beyond, of course, the feeling of 

 having done one's friend a good turn, — a virtue 

 possibly higher and more unselfish even than the 

 other. In this particular instance it may be that 

 lower clannish form existing among the Irish and 

 other half-savage races, who have been unable to 

 attain to the idea of personal individual security 

 being obtainable by ' government,' a truth often lost 

 sight of for a time by even advanced civilisation, — 

 the feeling that unless each member of the clan be 

 backed to the uttermost, whatever he may do, the 

 whole clan or sept will go to that gehenna to which 

 it is ever tending with increased velocity. Be that 

 as it may, that it exists in the higher or lower form 



