THE KILLER WHALE. 



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tolerably wide distribution, being found all over the Mediterranean, Pacific, Atlantic, and Arctic 

 regions. They evidently migrate, as they appear in Davis Strait in the spring, and stop there till 

 November. They are true fish-feeders, and herd in enormous numbers. A prettier sight can scarcely 

 be conceived than a large shoal frolicking, dashing, and springing in all manner of fantastic curves 

 with an amazing rapidity. Woe betide the " schools " of Herrings, Mackerels, and Pilchards that are 

 followed by these rapacious creatures, which cause great havoc among them ! They give birth to their 

 young about May. Mr. H. Lee, on Mr. Scott Siddons' authority, relates that in the surveying voyage 

 of the Herald the natives of Moreton Bay entreated the seamen " not to shoot their tame Porpoises." 

 These crowded lazily near the shore, and when a shoal of fish entered the bay the people roused the 



SHOAL OF PORPOISES. 



Porpoises, which dashed among the fish, ate some, and drove the rest ashore. Porpoise flesh, though 

 no longer an article of diet, was once held in high estimation, and even graced the royal table as late 

 as the time of " bluff King Hal." Porpoise meat was generally eaten with a kind of mint sauce, and 

 porpoise pudding was not an unusual dish during Lent as coming tinder the denomination of supposed 

 fish. " Porpoise leather " now in vogue is in reality the skin of the White Whale. 



THE KILLER WHALE, OR ORCA,* is truly the terror of the ocean. Not only Porpoises, White 

 Whales, and Seals spring out of the water and run ashore in fear of it, but the great Sperm Whale and 

 the Greenland Whale stand in deadly awe of its attack. It ranges in size from eighteen to thirty feet 

 long, and its fierceness and voracity are unbounded, as is well shown in an example which came under 

 Eschricht's observation. From the stomach of this individual he took thirteen Porpoises and fourteen 

 Seals, and the atrocious glutton had been choked in the attempt to swallow a fifteenth ! Hollboll saw 

 a herd of White Whales driven into a bay in Greenland where they were literally torn to pieces by 

 these voracious Sea-wolves. Scammon says that three or four do not hesitate to grapple with the 

 largest Baleen Whales ; the latter, often paralysed through fear, lie helpless and at their mercy. The 

 Killers, like a pack of hounds, cluster about the animal's head, " breach " over it, seize it by the lips, 

 and haul the bleeding monster under water ; and should the victim open its mouth they eat its 



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Orca gladiator. 



