Told of the Red Indian Whalers 23 



whale fishery of the white men were careful never 

 to allow a "greenhorn" to look at it lest he be 

 frightened out of his senses, and even men of 

 experience sometimes felt their nerves quiver as 

 they gazed upon one of these whales that was 

 approaching the boat. To the superstitious^ Ind- 

 ians, therefore, the right whale must have 

 seemed to be the embodiment of the most frightful 

 spirit of evil. Nor was it the appearance of the 

 beast alone that impressed them thus, for this 

 whale, when angered, was a monster of devilish 

 power and instincts. To enormous strength it 

 added astonishing agility. Raising its wide- 

 spread flukes in air, it would sweep them from 

 jaw to jaw, searching, sometimes swiftly and 

 sometimes with a gentle touch, here and there 

 for traces of its enemies. Everything within the 

 sweep, whether boat or man or splinter, was in- 

 stantly detected and crushed under a blow from 

 that tail. 



And yet the Indians, with their frail canoes and 

 their stone-headed spears, swarmed out to sea in 

 pursuit of right whales whenever they saw the 

 spouts, unless, indeed, the surf was impassable. 



