324 Reminiscences of 



terey and Carmelo, and can be observed at times 

 upon the island rocks off the shore by scores, rest- 

 ing and sunning themselves after their food-seeking- 

 swims, and their roaring can be heard a long ways 

 off. Alert and swift as they are in the sea, they are 

 slow and clumsy on the rocks, and in getting out 

 of the water upon them. On the approach of the 

 killers they can be seen coming in from all quarters, 

 and hurriedly seeking refuge on the rocks, and seem 

 to receive an intimation of danger in their scat- 

 tered localities, by that 3'et unknown and undefined 

 sense which communicates alarm and occurrences 

 so often between the denizens of the sea, though 

 widely separated. The salmon also cease feeding 

 and disappear upon the approach of the killers, 

 striking out in a body for deep water, and cannot be 

 caught for a day or two in the previous localities. 



As well known to whalers, when one in a large 

 school of whales separated over an area of a dozen 

 square miles is harpooned, it is immediately com- 

 municated to all others, though a number of miles 

 intervene between them. This has been repeatedly 

 observed from a whaling ship, and by the second 

 boat out for harpooning, when the first boat has 

 fastened to a whale. 



The first appearance of the killers occurred with me 

 one day at Carmelo Bay, nearly twenty miles south 

 of Monterey, where my boat was the sole one in that 

 pretty little bay of two miles wide. The first intima- 

 tion I had of the approach of the killers was when 

 we saw several sea-lions hurriedly clambering up some 

 island rocks near the shore, and the salmon, before 

 plentiful, had ceased striking. 



