The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1881-11-25
4 Battle II the Deep.

a Battle Of the Deep
Aletter from st. Johns, N. F., says:
On q lovely afternoon in July stood
upon the bank of q lofty cliff on that
part OF the coast between Placentia and
st. Mary's Bays. Everything was still.
Only the faintest murmur the angry
tones of the ocean roar upon the surf,
melted into delicious music. stole up
from the strand to where stood. The
sea fowl, which inhabited small ISL
and in myriads to my left, seemed. too.
to have fallen under the spell and gone
to sleep. The ocean heaved its breast
in feeble pillows, rolling landward with
q drowsy motion, and the fisherman in
his small boat rested upon his oars to
listen to the stiffness and calm which
had fallen over everything. A dozen
or more of fishing skiffs and boats,
little less than schooner size, stood
motionless where the last breeze had
tainted on their sails, and were photo
graphed to perfection in the smooth,
liquid deep; and even the ''unerring
tides" forgot for the moment, or seemed
to forget to set either north or south.
As l stood like everything about me,
mute under the influence of the after
noon, sound as of innumerable and
gentle tappings came up from the still
sea, and. looking, saw that myriads
of fishes, cod and the lesser fishes on
which the former preyed, had risen to
the surface and were ''breaching."
The tapping sound was made by beat
ing the waters with their tails and fins,
Such a scene is not uncommon; but al
most simultaneously with this heard a
hollow, whistllng sound. and saw col
umn of spray rise like geyser. about
fourteen feet from the water. [ saw
then that whale had risen among the
fishes, and with his monster, gaping
jaws, in a fourth of the time it takes to
write it, had engulfed several
hundreds of the preaching fishes, and
was about to plunge under the waves
again to swallow his prey pieceneal,
when two other creatures appeared
upon the scene. They were the united
and implacable foes of the whale. the
sword-fish, and thresher. The sword
fish, friphias gladius) is a long, 1.-THE
creature, armed with a long, hard sub
stance. protruding from its snout, re-
sembling sword, from which it de-
rives its name; the thresher is species
of sea-shark or x.shark, scientifically
known as carchdrias rutpes. 1t was
evident they had come for the double
purpose of making war upon the whale
and getting some of the feast for them
selves. In the space it takes the eye
to twinkle the offensive and defensive
were assumed. The swOrd-fish at once
attacked the whale under water, the
thresher attacked him above. AS the
whale made an effort to dive he i'm
PEELED himself against the armed head
of its 1.-the foe. and if he remained
where he was the thresher brought its
ungainly body with the precision of
monsters back. Such ''threshing''
| had never conceived of even in my
dreams, when I used to 60 to the hills
and rob birds nests, and saw the
teacher, more terrible than wrathful
dragon, with cowhide to expiate my
guilt. The sounds were dull thuds
when the thresher struck his antagO-
mist, and sharper and louder when he
missed his aim and struck the water.
The waves were beaten about in foam
and spray. the whale trying to ply his
tail upon his enemies, but before he
could get his ungainly body into posi-
ton his enemies were out of harms
way. and making new attack upon an
unsupported quarter. The contest con-
tinued, broken only by short intervals,
when the whale went below the surface
for about ten minutes. Then the sword
fish, as if satisfied with the part he had
played, dove down into the clear, blue
water and the thresher followed his ex-
ample. The whale, too. suddenly dis
appeared, and as he was the only one of
the three that had to rise and breathe
at stated intervals, watched with much
eagerness to see where he would rise
and "blow," or if he rose at all. Be-
yond the point, half-mile distant, I
saw the spout and then vigorous
plunge, and knew the whale had sur
vlved his thrashing. Numbers of boats
had rowed up to see the affray. and
gazed at the contest between these
monsters of the unknown deep with
pleasure deeply mingled with awe.