Morning journal and courier., 1881-11-14

Lively Encounter Between q Whale and
 aSwordfIsh and Tnrasher.
 [st. John Newfoundland Correspondence of the To
 ronto Globe.I
 On a lovely afternoon in July stood upon the bank of lofty cliff on that part of the coast between Placentia and St Mary's Bays Everything was still. Only the faintest nurmur, the angry tones of the ocean roar 1pon the surf, melted into delicious music stole up from the strand to where I stood The sea fowl, which inhabited small island ln myriads to my left. seemed too, to have allen under the spell and gone to sleep. T he ocean heaved it's breast in feeble pillows, rol ing landward with prosy motion, and the sisherman in his small boat rested upon his ,ars to listen to the stiffness and calm which mad fallen over everything. A dozen or more of fishing skiffs and boats, little less han schooner size, stood motionless where the last breeze had tainted on their sails were photographed to perfection in the smooth liquid deep, and even the '' 7nerring 'ides' forgot for the moment, or seemed to forget, to set either north or south. As stood. like everything about me, mute under the influence of the afternoon, a sound as of innumerabIe and gentle tappings came up rom the still sea, and looking I saw that nyriads of fishes, cod and the lesser crea- lures on wbich the former preyed, had risen 70 the surface and were s'breaching" The tapping sound was made by beating the wa ter with their tails and fins. Such scene IS not uncommon but almost simultaneous ly with this heard a hollow, whistling sound, md saw a column of spray rise like geyser, tbout IA feet from the water. I saw then that whale had risen among the fishes, and with his monster gaping jaws, in fourth of he time it. takes to write it, had engulfed several hundreds of the preaching fishes, and vas about to plunge under the waves again h. l. ,ther creatures appeared upon the scene. They were the united and implacable foes of he whale, the swordfsh and thrasher. The sword-fish, XiphiGs glC1t5ius, is 8 long. 1.-the reature, armed with long. hard substance orotruding from it's snout, resembling a sword, from which 1t derives its name; the hrasher is species of sea-shark or fox shark scientifically known as Cdrchd7TGs oulpes. It vas evident that they had come for the doub- e purpose of making war upon the whale md getting some of the feast for themselves in the space it takes the eye to twinkle the ,fepsive and defensive were assumed The 5wordfsh attacked the whale under water, he thrasher attacked him above. As the hale made an effort to dive he impelled himself against the armed head of his 1.-the foe, and if he remained where he was the shrasher brought it's ungainly body with the precision of machinery down upon the un tortunate monsters back. Such sthrash ing" had never conceived of even in my dreams when used s.to go to the hills and rob birds nests, and saw the teacher more ter rible than a wrathful dragon, with 8 cowhide 70 expiate my guilt. The sounds were dull buds when the thrasher struck his antago dist, and sharper and louder when he missed lis aim and struck the water. The waves were beaten about in foam and spray, the whale trying to ply his tail upon his enemies put before he could get his ungainly body into position his enemies were out of harms Say and making new attack upon an unex- pected quarter. The contest continued, o-oken only by short intervals, when the whale went below the surface for about 10 minutes. Then the swordfsh, as if satisfied with t'ie part he had played, dived down into the clear blue water and the thrasher followed his example. The whale, too, sud lenly disappeared, and as he was the only me of the three that had to rise and breathe 1t stated intervals, I watched with much -agerness to see where he would rise and blow" or if he rose at all. Beyond the point, half mile distant, I saw the spout, md then vigorous plunge, and knew the .hale had survived his thrashing. Numbers ,f boatmen had rowed up to see the affray, and gazed at the contest between these mon tiers of the unknown deep with pleasure deeply mingled with awe.