FISHERIES 163 



there are to fill. But it means less and less 

 demand for those glorious and most inspiring 

 qualities of courage, strength, and bodily skill 

 which are required by all who pit themselves 

 against Nature in her wildest and most danger- 

 ous moods. The fisherman and sealer have 

 only the elements to fight ; though this too 

 often means a fight for life. A hundred men 

 were frozen to death on the ice, and two 

 hundred more were drowned in the Gulf, dur- 

 ing the great spring seal hunt blizzard of 19 14. 

 Whalemen still occasionally fight for their lives 

 against their prey as well. And all three kinds 

 of deep-sea fishery have bred so many simple- 

 minded heroes that only cowards attract 

 particular attention. 



No modern reader needs reminding that 

 whales are not fish but mammals, belonging 

 to the same order of the animal kingdom 

 as monkeys, dogs, and men. They include 

 the most gigantic of all creatures, living or 

 extinct. The enormous ' right ' whales of the 

 story-books have been driven far north in 

 greatly diminished numbers. The equally 

 famous sperm whales have always been very 

 rare, as they prefer southern waters. But the 

 * finners,' which are still fairly common, include 

 the ' sulphurs,' among which there have been 



