14 THE WHALE HUNTERS 



nature of the whale. My ship sails on the tide but when 

 she returns I hope we shall be able to discuss the matter 

 more fully.' 



*Good hunting, sailor/ said Mr. Mather as the young 

 man went on his way. 



'That's what I like about keeping an inn,' he said 

 turning to Jonathan, 'you meet all types of men, good 

 and bad.' 



'But how is it, sir?' asked Jonathan, 'that you, an 

 innkeeper and farmer, know about these strange creatures 

 of the sea?' 



'On this island, Jonathan, whales are as much part of 

 our livelihood as innkeeping, tilling the poor soil or raising 

 hogs, sheep and cattle. I am too old to chase whales now 

 but I still watch them being brought to the shores and 

 stripped of their blubber. In my youth before I came to 

 the new country I sailed with the big English whalers to 

 Spitzbergen and Jan Mayen.' 



'And what is it that distinguishes whales from other 

 fishes?' asked Jonathan. 



Mr. Mather reached for one of the churchwarden pipes 

 over the fireplace and tucked the bowl in his doublet 

 whilst he carved some flakes from a plug of dark tobacco. 

 He was not sure, as we are to-day, that whales are 

 mammals but he had observed many things about them 

 that seemed in strange discord with their fish-like shape. 



'There are several differences, my son,' he said, puffing 

 up clouds of smoke. 'I think the first thing you would 

 notice would be the tail. A whale's is flat like the top of 

 the sea but the tail of an ordinary fish is up and down like 

 the rudder of a ship. A whale breathes the atmosphere 

 through a hole in the top of his head and must refresh his 

 lungs by coming to the surface frequently but an ordinary 

 fish has no lungs and seems to be quite content to pass 

 water through its gills. In short you'll never find a whale 

 with gills. There's another thing too; a whale bears its 



