The Sun.
London, England, 1856-10-02 00:00:00

WHALING ON ULVERSTOW SANDS.

On Saturday morning last while one of the fishermen
of Mr. H. W. Askew was 'visiting his nets in More-
cambe Bay, opposite the Coniston Priory, be had his
attention attracted by the appearance of an unusual enor•
mous substance possessing animal life floundering in a
sand hole, where it had been left by the recent tide, and
promising a god-send of some sort or other. Advancing
upon the waif he found this monster of the deep to be
nothing less than a whale—a small one, certainly, but
still veritably a whale. How to secure his prize was the
first consideration, and the man with a strong oaken
net stake commenced battering the creature upon the
head to kill it, but, as might be expected, without effect.
Having a strong line in his possession, about the thick-
ness of a cart rope, he rove it round the animal's tail,
drove his stake into the sand to a considerable depth,
and tethered the creature to it, hoping, when the tide
rose, he should find all safe and have no difficulty in
towing it in his boat to land. In this, however, he was
mistaken, for whale no sooner found itself fairly afloat
again than it "up anchor" and away, taking altogether
with it. After this there was a most exciting hunt and
endeavour to capture by a reinforcement of three more
persons—Tweedel, the guide over the sands ; White,
the landlord of the New Inn ; and a man named
Gracie ; and the chase was finally run into at
Hamrnerside-hill, in a pool almost dry. In the midst
of the onslaught the animal jumped from the
sand on the beach, as if it were amphibious, in its en-
deavours to escape. Then came the final struggle—boat-
hooks and other weapons likely to despatch it were de-
sperately wielded for a long time, without the desired
and deadly effect. As a whale-killing in Morecambe was
not an everyday occurrence, the circumstance, as may be
iirifigiaed, was one of great attraction, and crowds has-
tened to the spot to view the prize. On Monday last it
was taken to Ulverston and exhibited in a barn at the
Gill, at the admission price of 3d., and to continue as
long as the carcase did not become offensive, when it
would be boiled down for the oil. Those at all conver-
sant on the subject of cetaaeous animals, from its size
—l7 feet in length, and 9 feet in girth—pronounced it
to be either belonging to the species pyhseter, described
by Hunter and Pennant under the name of bottle-nose
or beaked whale, or a young one of the physsias, or fin-
fish description, both of those being destinguished from
the common whale by a fin on the back, placed very
low and near the tail. Mr. Beardsley, of CJiven-ton,
surgeon, however—no mean authority on such matters—
identified it as belonging to the genus baltenoptera, and
called the rorqual, which differed from the Gv2enland
whale and its allies by having a dorsal fin situated a
short way above the tail, and a series of longitudinal
folds and wrinkles on the skin on the under surface of
the throat and ohest. The folds are supposed to be
capable of dilation, but their use is not determined. Of
the rorquals only two or three species are known. The
plates of baleen situated in the upper jaw are short and
of inferior quality, and the blubber they yield is always
in smaller quantity ; from this, as well as from their
great ferocity, they are generally avoided and seldom
chased by the crews of whaling vessels. The. great ror-
qual often exceeds 100 feet in length, and is a native of
the Polar Seas, where it is seen both in troops and in
pairs. The rorqual is more restless, more suspicious,
and fiercer than the common whale.—lancaster Guar-
dian.