254 The Under-Water World 



the past ever exceeded the modern whales 

 in bulk or nearly approached them in 

 intelligence. Such a creature as the 

 Killer has only man as his foe. It can 

 drag down a polar bear, or cut up a forty- 

 foot squid. Left to themselves there is 

 no knowing to what length the aquatic 

 mammals might not develop. Their high 

 intelligence and capacity to pick up a 

 living in almost any sea continually opens 

 up fresh worlds for them to conquer. 

 With the advent of Man, however, the 

 whole situation has changed, and the great 

 sea beasts are joining the majority along 

 with their terrestrial relations. As re- 

 marked upon in a previous chapter, 

 whaling is a dying industry, and only 

 drastic legislation has saved our food 

 fishes from sharing the whale's melan- 

 choly fate. Even so, the food fishes are 

 continually obliged to seek fresh grounds 

 where they can breed unmolested, and 

 the steam trawler ever hard upon their 



