River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1881-11-17
BATTLE OF THE DEEP.
Seeing an Encounter Between " hale
and His Enemies Off the Coast OF
Newfoundland

A letter from st. johns, N. f., says:
On a lovely afternoon in July / stood
upon the bank of a lofty cliff on that
part of the coast between Placentia
and st. Mary's bays. Every thing was
still. Only the faintest murmer, 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 a small
island 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 land
ward with a 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. skitfs and
boats, little less than schooner size,
stood motionless where the last breeze
had tainted on their sails, and were
photographed 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 | stood like everything
about me, mute under the influence Of
the afternoon, a sound as of innumer-
able and gentle tappings came up from
the still sea, and, looking, | saw that
myriads of fishes, cod and the lesser
creatures on which the former pryed,
had risen to the surface and were
preaching" The tapping sound was
made by beating the waters with their
tails and fins. Such scene is not I'M
common: but almost simultaneously
with this I heard a hollow, whistling
sound, and saw column of spray rise
like gYser, about fourteen feet from
the water / saw then that whale
had risen among the fishes, and with
his monster, gaping jaws, in fourth of
the time it takes to write it, had engulf
ed several hundreds of the preaching
fishes, and was about to plunge under
the waves again to swallow his prey
piecemeal, when wo other creatures ap-
peared upon the scene. They were the
united and implacable foes of the whale
the sword fish, and thresher. The
sword-fish, xiphias gladiu, is a long,
1.-the creature, armed with a long, hard
substance, protruding from its snout,
resembling a sword, from which it de-
rives its name; the thresher is spe-
ficallv known as carcharias vulees. 1t
was evident they had come for the
double purpose of making war upon
the whale and getting some of the
feast for themselves. 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 impelled himself
against the armed head of his 1.-THE
foe, and if he remained where he was
the thresher brought his ungainly body
with the precision of machinery down
upon the unfortunate monsters back.
Such "threshing" | had never con-
ceived of even in my dreams, when |
used to go to the hills and rob birds
nests, and saw the teacher, more terri
BILE than wrathful dragon, with cow
hide to expiate my guilt. The sounds
were dull thuds wheu the thresher
struck his antagonist, 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
upgainly body into position his enc
mics were out of harms way, and
making new attack upon an unex-
pectcd quarter. The contest contin-
ued, broken only by short intervals,
when the whale went below the sur
face for about ten minutes. Then the
sword-fsh, as if satisfied with the part
he had played, dove down into the
clear, blue water and the thresher fol-
lowed his example. The whale, TOO,
suddenly disappeared, and as he was
the only one of the three that had to
rise and breathe at stated intervals, /
watched with eagerness to see where
he would rise and "blow," or if he rose
at all. Beyond the point, half-mile
distant, / saw the spout and then a
vigorous plunge, and knew the whale
had survived 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.