A Sportsman 331 



ful, leaping at times entirely over his body, and attack 

 him with redoubled fierceness, tearing away from 

 above and below, from the great corrugations of 

 his ribbed belly, and his huge lips, and perhaps have 

 already torn away his elephantine tongue, which for 

 the killers is a delicate and sought-for morsel. One 

 or two of the killers may illustrate the great pounding 

 act, one blow of which has been known to render 

 a whale temporarily senseless, and the hapless victim, 

 the largest animal of the earth, now near its last ex- 

 tremity, moves around in circles, sometimes turning 

 over on its back, or swimming on its side. 



Now, then, for the last act in this sad drama. The 

 leading boat cautiously pulls for the favorable putting 

 of the iron. The long lance is sped by powerful 

 hand in a vital spot and penetrates the tough skin as a 

 fork would that of an apple. Withdrawn, the warm 

 blood gushes out following, and perhaps two or three 

 more swift thrusts are made with equal success, and 

 then with the cry "Stem all!" the boat backs away 

 from the death flurry, which even the killers drop 

 away from. All is over, and the mighty monarch 

 of the ocean, with its mountain of flesh, is placid 

 in death. Scarcely, for before the last tremulousness 

 of the flurry is over, by a simultaneous effort of all 

 the killers, the body is seized and dragged below; 

 as the sanguinary animals of the forest drag their 

 victims to convenient places for devouring, so with 

 these wolves of the sea, who invariably, as experienced 

 by the Davidson family, drag the whale's carcass 

 to the bottom, or at least to a considerable depth, 

 where they indulge in a great feast, gorging them- 

 selves to fulness. 



