The All' Devouring Rorqual 65 



They know that the harvest of the sea is so abundant, 

 so entirely fitted for all the varied needs of its popu- 

 lation, that the surplus which man may dip into 

 without any fear of diminishing the supply by one 

 scale is always there, that no danger of exhaustion is 

 ever likely to arise at sea, whatever may be the case 

 ashore. Yet their complacency receives a severe shock 

 when Rorquals are found haunting the Channel of Old 

 England, and the Irish and North Seas during the 

 herring and mackerel seasons, relays of fish-devouring 

 giants whose appetite is insatiable, whose digestion is 

 that of a flour mill. Then do the fishermen wail. Is 

 it to be wondered at ? 



Patrolling with perfect ease those prolific coasts, the 

 Rorqual calmly swims through thousands of pounds' 

 worth of nets, shovelling down into his vast maw boat- 

 loads of herrings or mackerel at each gulp. The 

 gossamer of the nets he does not heed, they do not 

 even annoy him, so slight and trivial are they. So, his 

 appetite growing by what it feeds upon, this mighty 

 denizen of the deep sea comfortably wedlows in the 

 shallows near our shores, feeding, ever feeding, upon 

 the countless myriads of fish which should have been 

 awaiting the fishermen, but are, by reason of this awful 

 visitation among them, driven into deeper waters and 

 smaller companies to avoid hun. Meanwhile he, the 

 subject of our interest, enjoys himself, all unknowing 

 and unheeding of the maledictions of the fishermen 

 and the panic of the fish, devouring continually, always 

 hungry and always eating, until change of season sends 

 the herring or mackerel to sea again, and he must needs 

 follow or pursue some new line of food-procuring ; they 

 are all well known to this deep-sea denizen. 



It would be a comparatively easy task, but I feel 

 , one that would not be received with any enthusiasm, 



