174 SPORT IN NORTH AMERICA. 



The huge whale has only his tail as a weapon of 

 defence; and he endeavours to strike his dangerous 

 enemy with that. If he succeeds, a single blow is 

 sufficient, but if the saw-fish can avoid the fatal tail, 

 the combat becomes terrific. The aggressor leaps 

 out of the water in its turn, and falls upon the 

 whale, endeavouring, not to transfix it, but to saw 

 it with the teeth with which its weapon is provided. 

 The sea becomes tinged with blood, and the 

 whale is goaded into an ungovernable fury. The 

 saw-fish, however, manage to surround him, and 

 attack him on every side. He is very soon dis- 

 posed of then, and the saw-fish make off to other 

 conquests. 



Sometimes it happens that the saw-fish is unable 

 to escape the whale, as it falls back into the sea, 

 and in that case it will offer its sharp saw to the 

 side of the gigantic animal which is about to crush 

 it, and dies, like Maccabeus, under the weight of 

 the elephant of the seas. The whale then bounds 

 again into the air, sometimes bearing his murderer 

 with him, and dies in the act of killing the monster 

 to which he falls a victim. " If you can picture to 

 yourself," said the worthy captain of the 8an Chris- 

 toval, " the sea boiling, as it were with foam, and red- 

 dened with the blood of victor and vanquished, and 

 the two hostile squadrons attacking each other with 

 the utmost fury ; if you can imagine the indescrib- 

 able tumult, the terrible shocks, the savage roaring. 



