A STRANGE GIANT OF THE OCEAN 



At Aikawa, one day, a whale ship with a Japanese 

 gunner raised a herd of sperms a long way from the 

 village. The man allowed his greed to get the better 

 of his judgment and killed ten whales. He made 

 them all fast to the ship, which could barely move her 

 load through the water, and it was not until three days 

 later that she arrived at the station. The whales had 

 all "blasted," or decomposed, and were not as valuable 

 commercially as a single fresh one would have been. 



The meat of this species is so dark and full of oil 

 that it is of but little use as food. Nevertheless, dur- 

 ing the summer it is sold to the native coal miners 

 of Japan who live in such extreme poverty that they 

 are glad to get even such meat at two or three sen per 

 pound. 



I shall not attempt to chronicle he^e the numerous 

 authentic instances of ships or boats which have been 

 destroyed and sunk by sperm whales, for they are 

 the common property of every book on deep-sea whal- 

 ing. They leave no doubt that these animals often 

 turn the tables on their hunters and attack with savage 

 ferocity and dire results. 



Apparently the sperm is the only whale which will 

 deliberately turn upon its pursuers when not in its 

 death flurry. Not only is its tail used with terrible 

 effectiveness in sweeping the surface of the water and 

 delivering smashing blows, but boats are often crushed 

 like kindling wood between its horrible jaws. 



It would be interesting to know how long sperm 

 whales live. The bull which was killed in Japan for 

 the American Museum showed unmistakable evidences 



235 



