152 OTEER ENEMIES OF THE WHALE. 



held him by the jaw, his contortions, spouting, and throes 

 all betokening the agony of the huge monster. The whale 

 now threw himself at full length from the water, with open 

 mouth, his pursuer still hanging to the jaw, the blood is&n 

 ing from the wound and dyeing the sea to a distance around ; 

 but all his flounderings were of no avail, his pertinacious 

 enemy still maintaining his hold and evidently getting the 

 advantage of liim. Much alarm seemed to bo felt by the 

 other whales around. These * killers,' as they are called, are 

 of a brownish color on the back, and white on the belly, with 

 a white dorsal fin. They attack a whale in the same man- 

 ner as dogs bait a bull, and worry him to death. They are 

 armed with strong sharp teeth, and generally seize the whale 

 by the lower jaw. It is said that the only part of the huge 

 monster that they eat is the tongue. The whalers give 

 marvelous accounts of the immense strength of these " kill- 

 ers." They have been known to drag a whale from several 

 boats which were towing it to the ship." 



The saw-fish is also a most formidable assailant of the 

 Avhale. The upper jaw of this fisti is prolonged into a pro- 

 jecting flattened snout, the greatest length of which is six 

 feet, forming a saw, armed at each edge with about twenty 

 large bony spines or teeth. An account is given here of a 

 combat that occurred on the west coast of Scotland, between 

 a whale and some saw-fishes, aided by an auxiliary force of 

 " thrashers " (fox sharks). The sea was dyed in blood from 

 the stabs inflicted by the saw-fishes under the water, while 

 the thrashers, watching their opportunity, struck at the un- 

 wieldy monster as often as it rose to breathe. 



The sword-fish is also said to attack the whale, furnished, 

 also, with a powerful weapon for defensive or aggressive 

 war, in the shape of a bony snout about four or five feet long, 

 not serrated like the saw-fish, but of a much stronger con- 

 sistency — in fact, the hardest material known. 



Beset by powerful enemies, the whale must have a 



