CHAPTER XIII 

 THE GREYHOUND OF THE SEA 



THE finback whale is the greyhound of the sea, 

 and well deserves the name, for its beautiful, 

 slender body is built like a racing yacht and 

 the animal can surpass the speed of the fastest ocean 

 steamship. 



It is a hard whale to kill and trouble can always be 

 expected if the iron strikes too far back. The first 

 one I ever hunted gave us a four hours' fight, with 

 two harpoons in its body, and furnished abundant 

 proof of what a truly magnificent creature the finback 

 is. 



It was while I was with Captain Charles Grahame 

 on the Tyee in Alaska. We had had an exciting 

 experience with a humpback whale which rose under 

 the ship (described in Chapter III), and after killing 

 it had steamed toward several finbacks which were 

 spouting far away near the coast. The huge brutes 

 were feeding and lying on the surface rolling from 

 side to side, thrusting their fins and flukes into the air. 

 I could see, with the glass, that always when taking 

 a mouthful of shrimps they turned on their sides, 

 letting the great under jaws close over the upper, 

 the water spurting out in streams from between the 

 plates of baleen. 



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