A WHALE'S TONGUE 



iron striking the whale squarely between the flippers. 



The gray whales live in such constant terror that 

 when porpoises are playing about a single animal, as 

 frequently happens, it will sometimes become terrified 

 and dash madly for the shore, thinking that the killers 

 have appeared. 



I have never personally witnessed it, but the gun- 

 ners tell me that a pod of gray whales can be stam- 

 peded much like a herd of cattle. If three or four 

 ships are near each other when a school of devilfish 

 are found, they draw together, each vessel going at 

 full speed, while the sailors beat tin pans and make 

 as much noise as possible. The whales at once dive, 

 but as soon as they rise to spout the vessels rush at 

 them again. The devilfish go down once more but do 

 not stay under long, ascending at shorter and shorter 

 intervals until finally they are plowing along at the 

 surface. 



The animals are "scared up," as the gunners say, 

 and become terrified to such a degree that everything 

 is forgotten except the desire to get away and even 

 the means of doing that. It is not always possible to 

 stampede a herd, for often the whales will disappear at 

 the first sound and not rise again until a long distance 

 away. If killers are about, it is very easy for the ships 

 to stampede a herd of gray whales. 



Even if the devilfish do exhibit considerable stu- 

 pidity when danger from orcas threatens, at other 

 times they are the cleverest and most tricky of all large 

 whales. One day Captain Melsom, on the S. S. Main, 

 was hunting a gray whale in a perfectly smooth sea. 



201 



