Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1877-06-29
VOL. l.. NEW SERIES, VOL. XIII.
White Whales.
WIlERE AND HOW THEY ARE CAPTURED.
lorresnOudanea Naw U, rh sup

| ''i n nhu tonto i>lhHu huuuTluHl HAVE DeS
caught, literally on "a large island in tn
river St. Lawrence, seventy-two miles belo,
Quebec, known as Isle aux Coudres. Thi
island is in the heart of lower Canada
where the people are all French where tn
life of to-day is that of two hundred years ago
Two little stores and toll gate make up tn
town of Riyiere L'Ouelle, one of the oldes
settlements in Canada. Here, ever sine
the place was founded, there has been al
organized company for the prosecution o
marSOuR fishing. MGrSOmR means por
pOise, and that is the name which the peo
ple here give to the animal that attains tn,
dignity of white whales" when he gets in
to the aquarium tanks. 1t is OF no use t
argue with them: This thing is white
whereas the porpoise is black this thinl
has blow-h hole in the hack of its head
through which it spouts water, which thu
porpoise has not; this thing has NJ
dorsal fin, and the porpOise has; this thing
has horizontal, and the porpoisc has 8
vertical tail this thing body is shaped like
a whale, and not Ikea porpoisc this thing
is timid and shy. but the rorpoise is bold
and seems to court the society of ships this
thing never bounds out OF the water, but
the porpoise finds his principal enjoyment
seemingly, in that violent exercise" To all
tins they reply simply: This thing has
been marSomn to our grandfathers and
their grsndfathers, and it will always be a
mdrsomn to us and our children The
biologists depy that it is pOrpoise. Ger
tainly this huge FISH resembles whale, and
is no more porpoise than it is catfish
| Those who profess perfect familiarity with
| the creature affirm that it Is found only in
| this stretch of the st. Lawrence and in some
Florida river, near the coast As | said, it
| has long been a source of revenue here
Before white men came, the Indians used to
bounce Joyously upon stranded white whales
or ndrS0UiT-fOr their hides afforded a
tough, flexible leather; that of a whale,
yielded an excellent oil, and their meat was
deemed good to eat. Nowadays people do
not eat them, but for their other uses they
are as much valued as ever. A good fat
white whale, of average size, will yield two
hundred gallons Of pure oil, worth on an
average fifty cents per gallon and its skin
has been found seryiceable for the max ing
of the softest and incest boots and shoes 1t
is very porous leather, however.
For several generations the fishery at
Riyere L'Ouelle did an excellent business
In one particularly good season-three years
ago-they took one hundred white whales.
Since then not one has entered their traps.
People here believe that the marSoun took
alarm at the mortality of that year and have
warned each other to steer clear of this
shore
Isle aux Cobdres is an irregular patch Of
land, abOnt nine miles long and SIX miles
wide. At the lower end, and partly on the
sides, it slopes to the water but the upper
end rises to high table-land, especially on
its northwestern angle, where the bluff is
fully 80 feet high. Near the middle of this
upper end there is a narrow strip Of meadow
land, with small creek, up which the tide
made its way. Stretching out to a distance
of nearly mile before that bluff headland
and sweeping away round on both sides
about the same width, is a fiat surface of
shingly rock and mud, bare at low water,
but covered to depth of eighteen to twenty
feet at ordinary high tides-twenty-four
feet when the great spring tides rush in.
The island, even at the best of times, is ap-
proachable with safety only at certain con-
ditions of the tide. But in winter-and the
winters here are long-it is almost as isolat-
ed from the rest of the world as a colony at
the North Pole would be. Then, the stream
is filled with hugh ice blocks, driven with
irresistible force by the current, and the tide
alternately crushing, groaning, cracking,
and crumbling in the mighty contention,
whirling in vast eddies ard piling high in
irregular masses along the shore. But on
the island itself, its residence affirm, the
rigor of winter are not 50 kcenly felt as by
the dwcllers on the mainland Their win
ter air is more humid, less intensely cold
and the snow, instead of falling six feet deep
on level, as it does there, is seldom piOIe
than five feet deep
With all these apparent disadvantages and
discomfOrts, this island has been the home
Of generation after generation of hardy des
cendants OF the French who first settled the
country; here still live sixty-foIr families,
who seem as devotedlv attached to the soil
as if it were the choicest garden spot upon
which the sun shines. Some of them are
fishers, some farmers. None seem desirous
OF doing mora than the necessities of exist
ence absolutely require. Much OF their land
is still covered by the primeval forest, such
as It is. Why should they clear more than
they have already as much as their fathers
and grandfathers cultivated, as much as they
really need to till That is the way they look
at it. Few of them can read and write.
They are very piOus Catholics.
Some fourteen years ago, by one general
impulse, they fell from grace. They quar-
relied among themselves, got drunk, went
fishing on Sundays, swOre. and even played
it low on the good priest, Withholding from
him his little perquistes and dues Then
the good priest said to them. "God is angry
with you for your sins. and will punish you.
Until you repent Of your wickedness, turn
from the error OF your ways and do penance.
you will catch no more marsOHH They
laughed him to scourn, and kept on in their
evil way. They caught no more mdrsown.
Down at Riyiere L'Ouelle the mdrsoun
swarmed, but at Isle aux Coudres not one
was taken for ten years. Then they went
contritely to the good priest and begged him
to intercedc for them. The mdrsomn came
back asthere has been no backsliding since
and regularly as the season comes round
father Alike Pelletier is bcsought to pray
for a catch. Zach Coup when he was down
there secured two dollar prayer, and caught
five fine specimens, the very next morning.
The one now in the New York aquarium was
among the i've.
These white whales are very stupid and
cowardly creatures. 1t supposed that they
come at this season on family errands as
unborn young, four or five feet long are fire.
quently found. They also come up to this
point to feed on the little fish, locally known
as the capidn, iachc and cpidin, which
swarm here in May and June in vast num-
bers. In pursuit Of their prey, the white
whales run close up to the shore The fish
ers plant slender stakes, not more than an
inch or an inch and half in diameter and five
or six feet long, at distances nearly two feet
apart, in line enclosing parallelogram a
mile in width, and extended three.quarters
of a mile from shore seaward As the tide
recedes, the whales find themselves within
this enclosure. One of the big whales could
sweep down Il score of the stakes by single
dash at them, and there is room for him to
dart between "ithout touching them; yet
so cOwardly is he that these slender obstruc-
tions suffice to turn him. lie will rush sea-
ward to within a yard of the fence, then
wheel IN wild alright and dart back toward
shore, and 40 aimlessly exhaust himself,
while the water Is constantly growing more
and more shallow. Ar last he lies helpless
" stranded. None has ever been known to
break through the barrier and escape.
Not all the white whales 80 caught are
killed. The finest one are taken aiyo and
put into a reservoir in the small creek be-
fore mentioned, where long fence OF stakes
keeps them secure until they are wanted ror
the New aquarium or its branches. This,
although apparently job of some difficulty,
is easily accomplished A big battcau, or
deep, hat-bottomed boat, is dragged into
the pool beside the selected white whale,
half sunk On its side and then, by the com
bined strength of twenty or thirty men, the
lubberly animal is fairly boosted into t.
When the tide rises the batteau is towed
around to the reservoir and it, freight tip
ped out
Tue MoUSp BUILDERS. Some important
discoveries have been recently made Ill the
Western mounds. One of the latest report
ed in Iowa IL that of two stone tablets con
taIuIup ilptprlnl r,pfsspututioug and ,lin-