The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1877-02-23
A WONDERFUL STORY OF
THE DEEP.
An Immense sea Monster Cap
lures and swallows a
Sperm Whale.

y -
lures an1 swallows q
Sperm Whale.
Captain Drewar, of the bark Pau
line, who has just arrived at Cork,
from long voyage, favors the pub
lie with the following account of an
ocean marvel:
Park Pauline, July 8, 1875, lati-
tude ) deg. Is miu. north, longitude
30 deg. west, Cape San ROGUE,
northeast coast of Brazil, distance
twenty miles, at IL q. III. the wealth
er fine and clear, wind and sea mod
crate, observed some black spots on
the water, and q whitish pillar some
thirty feet above them. At the first
sight l took all to be breakers, as
the sea was splashiDg up mountain
like about them, and the pillar q
pinnacle rock, bleached with the
sun, but the pillar fell with splash
and similar one rose. They rose
and fell alternately in quick succes-
sion, and good glasses showed me
1t was monster sea serpent colled
twice around large sperm whale.
The head and tail parts, each about
thirty feet long, were acting as lev
ers, twisting itself and its victim
round with great velocity. They
sank ont of sight every two minutes,
coming to the surface still reVolv-
ing aud the struggles of the whale
and two other whales that were
near, frantic with excitement, made
the sea III their vicinity like boil
ing caldr0n and a loud, confused
noise was distinctly heard. This
strange occurrence lasted some If
teen minutes, and flashed with the
tail portion of the whale being ele-
waited straight in the air, then WaV-
ing backward and forward, and
lashing The water turiously in the
last death struggle, when the whole
body disappeared from our view.
going down head foremost to the
bottom, where No doubt it was
gorged at the serpent's leisure and
that monster of monsters may have
been many months in a state of
coma, digesting the huge mcuthful.
Then two of the largest sperm
whales that / have eyer seen moved
slowly thence toward the vessel,
their bodies more than usually ele-
waited out of the water, and not
spouting or making the east noise,
but seeming quite ParalyZed with
fear; indeed, a cold SILVER went
through my own frame On behold
ing the last agoniZing struggle OF
the poor whale that had seemed 6
helpless in the coils ct the vicious
monster as bird in the talons of q
hawk. Allowing for two coils
round the whale, think the SER
pent was about 100 or ITO feet long,
and Z or 8 feet in girth. II was in
color much like a conger eel and
the head, from the mouth being al
ways open, appeared to be the Iarg-
est part of it's body. 1t is curious
that the whale, that lives on the
smallest food of any fish ia the
ocean, should itself be but q meal
for another monster; for / think il
as feasible that the serpent swaI.
lowed the whale as that the boa
constructor can consume q whole
bullock.
l wrote thus far little thinking
would ever see the serpent again
but at Z a. m, July Is, in the same
latitude and some eighty miles east
of San Rogue, was astoDished to
see tho same or q similar monster
1t was throwing its head and about
forty feet of its body in a horizon.
tai position out of the water as il
passed onward by the stern of ouI
vessel. l began musing why we
were so much favored with such g
strange visitor, and concluded that
the band of white paint, two feet
wide above the copper, might have
looked like 8 fellow serpent to it.
and no doubt attracted it's attention.
1t was put on to keep the vessel clear
and free from barnacles, which il
does remarkably well; and if the
agitators about the deep load line
gain their wish, it would be both
useful and practical to mark the
vessel thus, in place of disfiguring
it with plague spots that would be
constantly rubbed eff. Ii the ship
owners, with two competent sur
veyors, SO decided, much misery,
uncertainty, and perpetual lawsuits
would be avoided. While thus
thinking, l was startled by the cry
of ''There it is sgain!" and q short
distance to the leeward, elevated
some sixty feet in the air, was the
great leviathaD, grizzly looking to-
ward the vessel. AS I was not sure
it was only our freeboard it was
viewing, we had all our axes ready,
and were fully determined, should
the brute embrace the Pauline, to
chop away for it's backbone with all
our might; and the wretch might
have found for once in its life that
it had caught a Tartar. This state
ntis strictly true, aud the occur
renee was Witnessed by my officers,
halt the crew and myself; and we
are ready at any time to testify on
oath that it is SO, and that we are
not mistaken.