io Wild Life in Southern Seas. 
tearing off the blubbery flesh in monstrous 
strips. Once, as he wallowed in his agony, he 
opened his vasty jaw, and ere he could close his 
mouth one of his foes thrust in his bull-dog 
head and sought to tear away a piece of his 
great tongue. And then came such a crashing 
and splashing and bewildering leaping of 
foam, and his tail upreared itself and swept 
round and round in all directions, and then 
struck the water a blow that sounded like a 
thunderclap. 
“ Look,” said the child again, “ there are 
more of those cruel killers coming ; see, there 
they are, just below us ! Oh ! how I hate 
them ! ” 
Fifty feet away from the persecuted hump¬ 
back, and sailing round and round in the green 
water beyond the rocks, were five sharks. They 
had smelt the blood of the battle, and were 
waiting till they could join in, and, while the 
killers forced their heads into the humpback’s 
mouth and tore out his toothsome tongue, feed 
upon the quivering mass of blubber and rend 
him in pieces from his head down to his 
“ small.” 
The unfortunate animal was now becoming 
