Mexico weekly ledger., 1877-02-22
~DETP..


.gmrnenss ssA Monster Captures and
s~svsIiovvs Q eperm WhAie. 9
. Captain DreWar, Of the bark Pauline
If London, who las instssafiEsd at
Cork from q long voyage, favors the
public with the following account OF an
OCEAN marvel. ml1a IL
BARK Pauline, July 3, 1875, latitude 3
DEG. IS min north. Longitude IS deg.
vest. Cape San ROGUE, northeast coast
of Brazil, distance 20 miles, at II d. M,
the weather fine and clear, wind and
Goa moderate, OBSERVED some jTblack
snots on the water, and "a w~hitisbipillar
some 80 feet high above them, At the
first sight I took all to be breakers, as
the sea was splashing up fountain-like
about them, and the pillar a pinnacle
rock, bleached wfth"the sun, but the
pillar fell with "a splash and a similar
one rose. They rose Iandfell alternase-
ly in quick succession. and good glasses
showed me it was q monster sea-ssr-
pent coiied twice around large sperm
whale. The head and tail parts, each
about 80 feet long, were acting as
LEVERS twisting Itself and its victim
round with great velocity. They sank
out of sight every two minutes, coming
to the surface still revolving, and the
struggles of the whale and two other
whales that were near, frantic with ex-
element, made the sea in their vicinity
like a boiling caldron and a loud, con-
fused noise was distinctly heard. This
strange occurrence lasted some fifteen
minutes, and finished with the
tail portion of the whale being elevated
straight in the air, then waving back
ward and forward, and flashing the wa
ter ~furiously in the last death struggle,
when the whole body disappeared from
view, going down head foremost to the
bottom, where no doubt it was gorged
at the serpent's leisure; and that mon
ster of monsters may have been many
months in q state of coma, digesting the
huge mouthful. Then two OF the
largest sperm whales that | have ever
seen moved slowly thence toward the
vessel, their bodies more than usually
elevated out of the water, and not spout
ing or making the least noise, but seem
ing quite paralyzed with fear; indeed,a
cold shiver ran through mySown frame
on beholding the last agonizing strug-
gle of the poor whale that had seemed
as helpless in the coils of the vicious
monster as a bird in the talons OF a
hawk. Allowing for two coils round
the whale, / think the serpent was
about 100 or 40 feet long, and 7 or s
feet in girth. It was in color much like
q conger eel; and the head, from the
mouth being always open, appeared The
largest part of its body. 1t is curious
that the whale, that lives on the small
est food of any fish in,the ocean, should
itself be but a meal for another mon
ster; for l think it as feasible that the
serpent swallowed the whale as that The
Demonstration can consume d whole
bullock.
/ wrote thus far, little thinking l
would ever see the serpent again; but
at Z q. m, July Is, in the same latitude
and some eighty miles east of San
Rogue, / was astonished to see the
same or a similar monster. 1t was
throwing its head and about forty feet
of its body in a horizontal position out
of the water as it. passed onward by
the stern of our vessel. i began mus
ing why we were so much favored with
such a strange visitor, end concluded
that the band of white paint, two feet
wide above the copper, might have
IOOhCu ilhC q lciIO"-Soip CLG W Az duO In
doubt attracted it's attention. It was
put on to keep the vessels side clear
and free from barnacles, which it 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 dis
figuring it with plague spots that would
be constantly rubbed off. Ii the
shipowners, with two competent sur
veyors, so decided, much misery, I'M
certainty, and perpetual lawsuits would
be avoided. While thus thinking, |
was startled by the cry of "There it
is again!" and q. short distance TO lee
ward, elevated some sixty feet in the
air, was the great leviathan, griraly
looking toward the vessel. AS l 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 statement is
strictly true, and the occurrence was
witnessed by my officers, half the crew,
and myself; and we are ready at any
time to testify on oath that it is So, and
that we are not in the least mistaken.