216 THE PELICAN. 



darting irregularly downwards to within a yard or 

 two of the surface. As the whale closed upon the 

 shoal, agitation seemed to increase, judging by the 

 increased excitement of the birds above. His long 

 black back slowly rose, and disappeared as the huge 

 animal rolled onwards, seldom descending so far 

 below as to bury his back-fin, which rippled along 

 the surface; at length he was in the midst of them, 

 and the confusion was complete. At one moment 

 he disappeared altogether; but though unseen by 

 us, it was very clear, by a momentary elevation of 

 an actual mass of herrings above the water, that the 

 poor frightened creatures had closed within the 

 smallest compass, and by the upheaving struggles of 

 the lower stratum of the shoal, were thus unwil- 

 ingly exposed to greater dangers in another element; 

 for, availing themselves of this eventful moment, 

 down came the birds with one simultaneous pounce 

 upon the dense mass. Shortly after, the dark fin 

 would again appear, and a bright jet of glistening 

 foam, rising like a fountain, announced that the ani- 

 mal was under the necessity of breathing or blowing 

 after his labours. Then again he would descend 

 headlong, with a sort of recruited spring, exhibiting 

 nearly his whole body, and giving the water a tre- 

 mendous lash with his tail as it disappeared. The 

 sound produced by this crash upon the waves was 

 astounding enough in itself, but the effect of the blow 

 was far more so; for, whether by a sort of sculling 

 motion* it scooped and threw a mass of herrings 

 upwards with a jerk, or whether they were fairly 

 driven from the water with the cloud of foam which 



