THE PELICAN. 
211 
darting irregularly downwards to within a yard or 
two of the surface. As the whale closed upon the 
shoal, agitation seemed to increase, judging by the 
increased excitement of the birds above. His long 
black hack slowly rose, and disappeared as the huge 
animal rolled onwards, seldom descending so far 
below as to bury his back-fin, which rippled along 
the surface : at length he was in the midst of them, 
and the confusion was complete. At one moment 
he disappeared altogether; but though unseen by 
us, it was very clear, by a momentary elevation of 
an actual mass of herrings above the water, that the 
poor frightened creatures had closed within the 
smallest compass, and by the upheaving struggles of 
the lower stratum of the shoal, were thus unwill- 
ingly exposed to greater dangers in another element ; 
for, availing themselves of this eventful moment, 
down came the birds with one simultaneous pounce 
upon the dense mass. Shortly after, the dark fin 
would again appear, and a bright jet of glistening 
foam, rising like a fountain, announced that the ani- 
mal was under the necessity of breathing or blowing 
after his labours. Then again he would descend 
headlong, with a sort of recruited spring, exhibiting 
nearly his whole body, and giving the water a 
tremendous lash with his tail as it disappeared. The 
sound produced by this crash upon the w r aves was 
astounding enough in itself, but the effect of the blow 
was far more so ; for, whether by a sort of sculling 
motion, it scooped and threw a mass of herrings 
upwards with a jerk, or whether they were fairly 
driven from the water with the cloud of foam which 
