River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1874-06-16
1 WHALE ON AN OYSTER BED.
The Largest Fish that ,vrs Ever Killed In
I drifuu Bay,
ZION the &c ~ Sun, May %.

y
graduating themselves on so suspicious
o commencement as the capture of an
enormous whale. Last Friday morning
John Spain saw, n short distance from
the shore, what appeared to him to be a
sloop bottom upward. The water was
not more than five feet deep, and the
supposed boat had grounded on an
oyster-bed. While Spain was specu-
lating as to the probable fate of the
crew, the object began to move per-
ceptibly, and several jets of water were
thrown into the air. The astonished
observer had never seen leviathan,
but had read about them in connection
with Jonah, and seen pictures of them
tossing large boats forty feet in the air
with a slash of their tails, and he be-
lieved the creature before him TO be
very like a whale
John rushed to the house of Capt.
itoberts and surprised that mariner be-
yond measure by assuring him that
there was whale in the Oyster bed.
A single glance at the dark, glistening
mass, rising four feet out of the water,
assured the experienced Captain that
the creature was indeed leviathan of
large dimensions, harda ground. Arm
ing himself with a gun, hatchet, and
u considerable quantit Of powder and
ball, he jumped into boat and started
upon one of the understandable fishing
excursions within the range of hisex-
perience. Arrived within few yards
of the monster, he took a steady aim
and planted ball under his fin. The
bullet sank beneath the skin and Jet
OF blood spurted out. but for all the
effect produced upon the whale the en-
terprising Captain might as well have
fired into the trunk of tree. How
ever he tried second shot and third,
and continued to practice upon the crea-
ture until its sides looked like target
after German shooting festival He
thinks he finally would have slain it
had his ammunition and daylight held
out, but in the absence of any more
lead he seized his trusty hatchet and
prepared to renew the contest at close
quarters.
Again and again, that murderous blade
sank deep INTO the side of the monster.
and every stroke was followed by re-
sponsiye spasm. 1t was warm work,
and though the Captain has few equals
with oyster-tongs, after he had cut
hole in the creatures side about four
teen inches long 10y eight wide and a
foot deep, he was glad to rest. The
whale was apparently as fresh as ever, and
showed no signs of going into his final
furry, though he evinced an overwhelm-
ing desire to get off the oyster-bed.
Meanwhile Bloodgood, having heard
of the event, had not been idle. He had
gone to Samuel Ney, the village black
smith, and made him blow up his fire
and manufacture stout iron spear ten
feet inlength. With this formidable
weapon hot from the forge, he was now
seen approaching the shore accompa-
MED by Ney. Capt. Roberts saw them
coming and renewed his onset upon the
whale, charging the hole severalinches.
but failing to kill the creature.
| The blacksmith evinced an amount of
cool diseernment in the face of danger
not unworthy of his French namesake
of martial renown. He directed Blood
made by the Captains Ratchet. The
hint was acted upon, and feet of iron
sank into the whales blubber. The
struggle was not long in doubt after
that. With the skill of Arctic voyagers,
the three men kept out of reach of the
monster in his dying furry" and in
ten minutes he was dead whale Not
all the row-boats in South Ambov
could have towed him off the oyster-be
but a steamtug fastened a hawsCr TO
him and dragged him ashore, where
the united efforts of the inhabitants
hauled him out of the water.
There were divers conflicting theories
as to the cause of his inland excursion.
Many old fishermen, who by virtue of
their calling were supposed TO know all
about whales, though none of them had
ever seen one, cherished pleasant fic-
ton that the creature being, essentially
q denizen of the briny ocean, getting
accidently into the river, had become
blinded and bewildered with the I'M
wonted effects of the fresh water, and
moved on bliudly 10 it's fate without
knowing where it was going to. Others
assigned sicknessast the cause fits COM
ing into the river, saying that these crea-
lures always went into shallow water
when they felt themselves dying, and
this theory was somewhat borne out by
the fact that the creatures snout was
covered with parasites, which are said to
attack whales when they are ON the
point of death.
In coming up the river, the whale
must have kept in comparatively mar
row channel, the water Of theRaritan be-
ing very shallow ut some distance from
the banks. Had it been high tide, there
is 4 strong probability that itwould have
passed up to New Brunswick, "a distance
of seventeen miles.
The whale was found to measure 49,
feet in length. . feet through the body,
and thirty feet in circumference. The
head was 10 feet long, and .he tail If
feet. The gills, from which the whale
bone is produced, were 3, feet long.
ON Saturday the crowds coming from
far and near Ia view the carcass, inspir-
ed the captors with the idea of making
Il paying speculation of the exhibition,
and il was accordingly enclosed, and
small price charged for admission. On
Sunday the throng was SO great that
A 4