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THE STRAND MAGAZINE. 



vast new enemy had passed away in the fury 

 of conflict, it was succeeded by an over- 

 mastering delight, a high and prideful sense 

 of superiority to every Hving thing, of abiUty 

 to maintain worthily the foremost place 

 in the scale of creation, a sense with 

 which all the tribes of mankind are gifted, 

 although the consciousness of it varies 

 greatly with their environment. And pre- 

 sently these valiant men found to their 

 amazement that the enormous bulk and 

 vigour of the foe had not availed to save his 

 life. His movements became listless, the 

 surrounding sea was deeply stained with his 

 blood, and to the roar and tumult of this 

 strange conflict succeeded the solemn stillness 

 of death. There before them floated their 

 colossal prize, a mountain of fat and flesh, 

 providing for their two chief wants in the most 

 lavish manner. What a revelation of the 

 ocean's bounty it provided ! True, in order 

 to avail themselves of it, they must needs 

 hazard a life or so, but that they did con- 

 tinually and for far less valuable objects than 

 the present prize. And life, after all, was 

 not so jealously cherished in those days. 

 Even now, when the pleasures of living are 

 enhanced a thousand-fold, men cheerfully risk 

 life for what often appears to be the most un- 

 substantial of rewards. How much more in 

 the race's young days, when there were only 

 the most elementary desires to be satisfied and 

 man had scarcely more prevision or ambition 

 than the animals he hunted ! 



This success beyond all hopes changed 

 the whole trend of those simple Biscayan 

 savages' lives. No longer feeble fisher-folk, 

 groping alongshore for small fry, they leapt 

 at one bound into the proud position of 

 mighty hunters, warriors who could meet the 

 eldest-born of mammalian monsters in hand- 

 to-hand fight and overcome them. There 

 was rejoicing in all the coast villages. From 

 every creek and bay arose the oily reek of 

 whale-flesh, the smoke of the fires whereon 

 was boiled the rich coating of precious fat. 

 The report of these doings crept eastward 

 and fired the imagination of all that went 

 down to the sea for gain on the European 

 side of the Channel. On our side at that 

 early day there had not been established 

 as yet the pre-eminent bent for seafaring 

 which afterwards became our leading charac- 

 teristic. Farther and farther crept the news 

 until by the beginning of the tenth century 

 the whale-fishery as a great industry was 

 firmly established along the shores of Spain, 

 France, and Flanders. The meat was carried 

 far inland and sold, its value then being far 



greater than that of the oil. For men's tastes 

 were not delicate, and, besides, were often 

 perverted, as a reading of any old account of 

 Roman cookery will show. The importance 

 of the commerce may be easily estimated by 

 the fact that the Church took tithe of whales' 

 tongues as a delicacy, and, doubtless, assisted 

 in the dissemination of this form of food by 

 declaring it to be fish, and therefore lawful to 

 be eaten on fast-days. Later on came the 

 Government, such as it was, claiming its share 

 of the sea-treasure by levying an impost in cash 

 upon every whale brought into harbour. All 

 of which things go to prove how important the 

 industry had become, although as yet it had 

 not advanced to the dignity of having ships 

 fitted out for its prosecution. There was as 

 yet no need for such an extension, since the 

 whales always prowled along the shore in 

 sufficient numbers to make their capture by 

 boats possible. Besides, the principal gains 

 from the fishery would then have disappeared, 

 as no means had been devised for pre- 

 serving the meat for any length of time. As 

 it was, there can be no doubt that the great 

 blocks of black meat were often uncommonly 

 high and gamey by the time they reached 

 their ultimate destination on the tables of the 

 purchasers. 



Meanwhile, quite independently of the 

 discoveries of the Biscayans, the hardy 

 Vikings of Norway and their no less rugged 

 kinsmen of Iceland had also set up a whale- 

 fishery in the far North. Here, while the 

 great mammals hunted were of a milder and 

 less agile disposition, the conditions obtain- 

 ing at sea were far more rigorous. But since 

 the inhabitants had to live, they must needs 

 do battle with their circumstances as well as 

 with their game. And, as if to show how 

 man can and does adapt himself to the most 

 terribly severe environment, they not only did 

 so, but succeeded wonderfully, until it is safe 

 to say that they had learned to depend 

 almost entirely upon whales and other sea- 

 mammals for their bodily needs, even as those 

 strange specimens of mankind, the Esquimaux, 

 do to this day. 



The hasteless years rolled on while whale- 

 fishing grew and prospered, inciting these 

 fearless fishermen to more and more daring 

 exploits, until they rose to the height of 

 building ships that could venture far to sea, 

 and there find ever fresh supplies of the great 

 sea-monsters they had learned to look upon 

 as supplying all the primal necessaries of life. 

 In due time they reached the ice-bound 

 shores of Greenland, of Labrador, and the 

 milder, but hardly less dangerous, coast of 



