Orca Gladiator. 
3 
spray, and then another and another ! Five 
humpbacks—two cows, two calves, and a bull 
—only a small “pod”—that is, a school. 
Nearer and nearer they came, their huge, black 
humps gleaming brightly in the dazzling sun¬ 
light as they rose to spout. A hundred yards 
in front, the old bull rolls lazily along, “ sound¬ 
ing ” but rarely, for the sea is full of squid, 
and he and his convoy, with drooping lower 
jaws, suck in the lovely morsels in countless 
swarms. 
Six weeks before, as they had rolled and 
spouted northwards to the great lagoons of the 
Bampton and Bellona Reefs, they had passed 
within, perhaps, a hundred yards of the head¬ 
land upon which we sat. Perhaps, too, a fierce 
“ north-easter ” blew, and the chain of rocks 
that was now so gently laved by the murmuring 
waves was smothered in the wild turmoil of a 
roaring surf, and the great bull, although his 
huge, corrugated belly itched sorely from the 
thick growth of inch-long barnacles that had 
so tormented him of late, spouted regretfully 
and headed seaward again—even he could not 
scratch his giant frame in such a surf as that. 
But to-day it was different; and now he could 
