CHAPTER II 

 OCEAN FISH AND OCEAN FISHING 



WHALKS ! I shall at once be reminded that 

 whales are not fish. In many respects they are 

 animals, but as they live in the sea, have been 

 called fish from time immemorial (invariably so 

 by whalers), and as this is not a scientific work 

 on natural history, I shall, for the sake of con- 

 venience, write about them under their popular 

 designation. 



Probably I have seen more cetaceans in the 

 ocean than most voyagers have. As a matter of 

 fact, I was always on the watch for them. Let 

 me try to recall my experiences. 



I have a dim recollection of having in childhood 

 been shown an arched gate outside a cottage 

 near the sea, and being told that it was made of 

 a whale's jaw-bone ! Before I travelled I had 

 seen a whale's skeleton in a museum, and had 



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