Behemoths of the Ocean 



Early in the present century a harpooner 

 deliberately sent his harpoon into an infant- 

 whale, hoping thus to take the mother. And 

 he had not miscalculated the strenii^ah of maternal 

 love. 



No thought had that poor mother of saving 

 herself by flight. She came fearlessly close to 

 the boat, seized her wounded litde one, and 

 dragged it away with extraordinary rapidity, 

 using up six hundred feet of line. 



Then she rose again, dashing to and fro in 

 such evident ''extreme agony" that one can 

 only marvel at the men who were able to watch 

 it unmoved. Two harpoons were flung at her, 

 and failed to strike. A third succeeded ; but 

 still, absorbed in her little one's peril, she paid 

 no heed to her own injury, made no effort to get 

 away, and "in the course of an hour" she was 

 killed. 



That was in 1811. The same deed has been 

 lately described by Mr. Bullen — the slaying of a 

 mother-whale, which, with her infant by her side, 

 refused to use her great strength in self-defence, 

 lest she mio^ht hurt that little one. Such love as 

 this should surely be respected, even by rough 

 fishermen. 



If not in pity to the whale, another reason 

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