HUMP-BACK WHALE IN NATAL WATERS. 



61 



that it was with difficulty we prevented them from tearing the 

 throat out of the Whale, and on this occasion, giving a hand, with 

 a long pole with a hook at its end, I finally succeeded in run- 

 ning one through the gills and damaging others. On the 

 'Omen' turning about the Sharks left us, but later on, when 

 looking in that direction again, their black dorsals skimming 

 the surface spoke of their disappointed greed. 



On our homeward journey (now half-past three) it was noticed 

 that the carcase began to lose its equilibrium, the head being 

 forced under water almost horizontally, as it were, and so, to 

 prevent the chain snapping, a clever mechanical contrivance 

 was brought for the first time into action, and deserves, I 

 think, to be described. A long lance enclosing a metal tube (to 

 one end of which is fastened a rubber pipe, the other end 

 being attached to a pump connecting the engine-room) is forced 

 down into the Whale's body, the air being pumped through 

 the aperture in its point into the stomach until it is raised 

 to the surface again. This invention, I heard, belonged to the 

 mate. 



We again made a move, nothing more of interest happening 

 during the afternoon. A small flock of birds, which I judged to 

 be Curlews of some kind (Numenius), passed us, bearing down 

 south. 



From what had happened and been observed during the 

 short time these Whales were apparently in season, and the 

 great number of this species of cetacean that has been boiled 

 down (no fewer, I find, than one hundred and four, including two 

 Rorquals, between the months of July and early September), 

 goes to confirm what writers have said of it — " never fierce or 

 easily alarmed" — allowing steamers to approach quite closely; 

 and such accidents as getting under the ship's propeller and 

 striking out, as recently happened to the ' Jupiter,' was the 

 result of the wounded animal getting caught in the keel. Most 

 of these and such-like happenings would never take place if the 

 balls burst, or if the time-wires had responded in the first in- 

 stance. 



The question may be asked, On what does the Hump-back 

 feed ? In reply I can only relate what I saw when a Whale was 

 being dissected last August. One of the stomachs, which may 



