WHALES AT JIOME. 



429 



shovels them by tlie score of bushels at a 

 time. It hangs down hkc a cheval-de-frise 

 and keeps in stragglers when the swallowing 

 motion is made, and the glittering, squirming 

 mouthful slides easily down that capacious 

 gullet. Well may the fishermen of the 

 coast speak with scorn of close seasons 

 for the protection of the sea-fish from 

 their avarice. They do their little best 

 with their nets to secure a full haul of fish, 

 but what are their puny efforts compared 

 with the mobile ease with which one fish- 

 eatiiig whale will 

 entertain and digest 

 myriads of toothsome 

 morsels. They know 

 well that, when they 

 shoot their nets and 

 eagerly scan the hori- 

 zon for sign of fish 

 in vain, their unap- 

 proachable competi- 

 tor is hard at it, far out 

 of their ken, securing 

 all the fish he needs, 

 great though those 

 needs may be. 



To my mind this 

 has always been one 

 of the most impres- 

 sive lessons taught to 

 those who care to 

 learn of the fecundity 

 of the sta-folk. Here 

 is a mammal equal 

 in bulk to. some hun- 

 dreds of oxen, but 

 with a capacity of 

 assimilation which no 

 land animal can ap- 

 proach, feeding fully, 

 feeding always, yet 

 ever finding a bounte- 

 ous feast, where there 

 is nothing to hinder 

 his enjoyment of life. 

 He is a living em- 



bodi.^ent of the other side of the sailor's 

 fanciful definition of a good country to live 

 in, a country where there is " plenty to drink 

 and always a-dry." In the rorqual's country 

 there is plenty to eat and he is always an- 

 hungered. 



So in ancient days the Biscayan fishermen, 

 in their crazy boats, venturing off from the 

 land with a boldness that should command 

 our highest admiration, sought to gather 

 from the inexhaustible sea that food which 

 the unkindly land denied them. Presently 



they found to tlu-ir affright that all too 

 fre([uently some awesome monster swept 

 through th(i feeble barriers of net they had 

 erected with so much toil for the ensnaring 

 of fish, and carried off before their anguished 

 eyes the fruit of all their labours and the 

 means whereby they had hoped to secure 

 it also. They rose to the occasion. With 

 clumsy spears of bone-pointed poles they lay 

 m wait for the terror-striking monsters that 

 were despoiling them, their courage of that 

 exalted order that can only be found where 

 men determine to 

 face at once the great- 

 est of possible 

 dangers and the far 

 more terrifying possi- 

 bilities of the un- 

 known. How many 

 of them succumbed 

 to the vigour and fury 

 of the sea monsters 

 has never been re- 

 corded, but, knowing 

 as we do what manner 

 of whale it was that 

 they encountered, we 

 may be absolutely 

 certain that the toll 

 taken of these heroes 

 by death was of the 

 heaviest. P'or as it is 

 to-day, only in less 

 degree, so it was then, 

 the rorqual, eater of 

 fish, following keenly 

 after the migrating 

 shoals, propelled his 

 vast serpentine form 

 through the shallows 

 near the coasts of 

 Europe, especially 

 those of what we now 

 call the English 

 Channel. One cir- 

 cumstance, and one 

 only, told against 

 him— the want of room for his swift down- 

 ward rushes. Therefore, when he was at- 

 tacked by the despairing fishermen, he had 

 perforce to expend most of his energy in 

 frantic Inshings and wallowings near or upon 

 the surfLice, while his enemies thrust at him 

 continually with their feeble weapons, feeling 

 no doubt that it was better to die in the 

 throes of an heroic battle like this than by 

 the weary, long-drawn-out process of starva- 

 tion. Moreover, as I can bear personal 

 testimony, once the natural dread of the 



