328 Reminiscences of 



while the killers tore the unfortunate victims to 

 death, at which they joined in devouring. 



At the Bay, a family of Davidsons — ^father and sons 

 — had established a whaling station similar to the one 

 at Monterey Bay, where they had carried on for many 

 years the business of whaling in conjunction with 

 a moderate number of killers, a dozen in nvimber, 

 with whom the family had intimate and friendly 

 business relations, which had existed over a dozen 

 years. These killers periodically departed from Two- 

 fold Bay, but would return regularly to their accus- 

 tomed haunts, and were so familiar with the Davidsons 

 as to be named separately and individually: one Tom 

 Tug, from his stripping success, another Fatty, another 

 Flukey, etc., each being well known and separately 

 designated. 



The killers accompanying the Davidsons with 

 boats, would seize and hold a whale while the father 

 and sons would lance it to death, whereupon the 

 killers would drag the whale below and feast upon 

 it to their fill. In a day or a day and a half, the 

 whale would from a natural action rise to the 

 surface, the place being marked by a buoy; where- 

 upon the body would be towed to the shore for trying 

 out. 



The method of holding an ordinary-sized whale 

 was most systematic, the killers distributing them- 

 selves about the body, and fastening on with bull- 

 dog-like grips, with an occasional letting go by one 

 or two of the killers, who would swim off a matter 

 of fifty or a hundred feet, and returning with all 

 their speed would strike the whale the most terrific 

 blows with their heads, and then fasten on again. 



