122 



Marvels of the Universe 



of the French Pass, on the direct route between Wellington and Nelson. New Zealand, and is 

 popularly known as Pelorus Jack from his favourite cruising-ground, Pelorus Sound. 



Briefly and baldh^ stated, the facts about this curiously-mannered animal, as verified b\- myself, 

 are as follows. It is a Gray Grampus of about eighteen feet in length, which for a considerable number 

 of years has been in the habit of meeting vessels using the French Pass at a point aboiit 



five miles south of that narrow current- 

 tormented strait, and accompanying them for 

 about half an hour, rubbing itself against the 

 bows in the rush of the boiling foam like an 

 affectionate cat against the legs of its owner. 

 The speed of the vessel in which I made the 

 passage was fully eighteen knots ; but the 

 little whale seemed to maintain its position 

 with the same absence of effort as does the 

 Albatross over the masthead of a swift steamer 

 — anj' movement of fin or tail was impossible 

 to detect. Occasionally with the same utter 

 ease it glided ahead for a ship's length, then 

 dropped alongside again, until, its visiting time 

 having expired apparently, it sheered off at 

 right angles and disappeared. 



The causes of its visiting ships like this are 

 entirely mysterious, since a ship can supply 

 nothing the creature needs ; yet it is absolutely 

 faithful in its attendance, and so general is the 

 interest aroused by it in New Zealand, that a 

 resolution of the Legislature has been unani- 

 mously passed requesting all persons to refrain 

 from molesting it. This should not be neces- 

 sary, but we must sadh? admit that it is. 



Around this most interesting mammal has 

 concreted a mass of legend, as, indeed, was in- 

 evitable. There are not wanting old identities 

 of New Zealand prepared to swear that they 

 have known the ways of this whale for half a 

 century, that it was once wounded from a 

 ship, and ever afterward avoided that par- 

 ticular ship, and so on, and so forth. The 

 Maori stories are highly picturesque and romantic, as might be expected from this strange people; 

 but the}' all agree upon one point, which is that this whale is a minor deity well affected towards 

 a particular tribe, which, indeed, it seems to have taken under its special protection. 



Pholo io] \_Miiir .[■ Jfooilie. 



PELORLS J.\CR. 



The Grampus is here shov\ n as seen from ihe decU of the 



vessel it is piloting through the French Pass, New Zealand. 



THE SABRE-TOOTHED TIGER 



BY R. I. POCOCK, F.R.S. 



It is a great mistake to think that high organization necessarily involves success in the 

 struggle for life. Specialization of structure means adaptation to special conditions ; and if the 

 conditions fail, the organism fails too, because of its inability to adjust itself to a changed 



