V ' Among the Sharks and Whales' 435 



own infinite discomfiture, but he has never been 

 accused of doing it on purpose ; nor do I remember 

 ever having seen a decently authenticated story of 

 his attacking a whale from below, in order to give 

 the grampus a better opportunity of threshing him 

 from above. In this case the story would have 

 some semblance of truth, as being a family quarrel 

 strictly confined to near relations who could under- 

 stand each other's allusions and be none the less 

 venomous on that account. A curious story of one 

 of these attempts of the narwhal to poke his nose 

 into things which did not concern him is recorded 

 by that gallant gentleman, William Blundell, in his 

 Cavalier's Note-book, which, if true, would induce one 

 to believe that that pretty, and even graceful little 

 whale ranged farther to the southward in the seven- 

 teenth century than it does at present. Unhappily, 

 his sole authority is that very polemical politician, 

 Sir Roger L'Estrange, out of whose name the wags 

 of the day name the uncomplimentary, but I am afraid 

 too truthful anagram, ' O lie — strange Roger ! ' 



These bouncings and flouncings, and consequent 

 troubles of fishes under the influence of mere whim 

 or sudden terror, are by no means confined to sword- 

 fish or narwhals ; and in some cases they cause 

 much damage not only to the fish, but to the 

 substance on which he happens to impinge in his 

 headlong course. That widely extended and curious 

 tribe of fishes, the hemirampld or ' half-beaks,' built 

 on lines the exact reverse of those of the sword-fish, 



