The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1889-08-23
WHALES OF ALL SORTS
Their Habits and Modes of Life and wa


Their Habits and Modes of Life and wa
fare.
The London telegram, abiding *
an exhibition of different kinds o.
whales shortly to be given in. the
Natural History Museum of London,
says:
How such a spectacle as this changes
the ordinary ideas about the life that is
lived under the sea. 1t is seen almost
at glance that that grievous division
OF terrestrial existence into the eaters
and the eaten holds good in marine
communities also. On the one side
are the toothless whales, prodigious in
bulk, but virtually defenseless against
attack; soft-bodied, and comparatively
unwieldy. On the other are the fierce
''toothed' whales, smaller in dimen-
sion, but in proportion swifter, fierce as
tigers, and as cruel. Here is the
enormous tin-whale, some seventy feet
in length, with its great helpless paws,
for they are little else, which it uses as
paddles, hanging idly down, and its
immense jaws which, fringed with
whalebone, served it well enough as
trap for diminutive crustaceans and
cuttle-fish, but are no weapon against
the crocodile-snout of its smaller
enemies. Next to it is 1.-THE
killer" Orca Gladiator, the wolf
OF the sea, which looks upon the
Leviathan as ordinary beasts of prey
regard flocks and herds, and which
does not hesitate, with it's hundred
weight of bulk to its victims ton, to
attack it. Sometimes they will hunt in
packs, and, surrounding one monster,
will ferOciOusly tear the living thing to
pieces, mouthful by mouthful. At 9TH
ers they chase the olphin add the por-
poise, or kill the seal and the narwhal.
Except that they do not haunt the har-
bors OF busy ports, follow ships, and
otherwise seek human prey, the
''killers," whales though they are, are
far more terrible creatures than the
sharks. There have been writers who
have spoken of life under the ocean
wave as placidly, monotonously dull,
without any decided interests or excite
ments. Yet, looking round this whale
vault, wit its fierce armature of fang
and tusk and horn, it is difficult, in
deed impossible, to believe that sub
aqueous existence is really uninterest-
ing. On the contrary, when we survey
forms so active and powerful in out
line, so pugnacicus in expression,
so dreadfuIly mrmed for battle
with natural weapons, and Zero
ciOus rapidity of speed, we
Of ,f,rl
be the tragedies enacted in the impen-
etrable depths of the sea, and what
conflicts of race and for empire must
be continually waged. For mere ex-
istence alone the carnage passes beyond
human calculation. Look at that fin
ner whale there. with mouth in which
a tea party could be given. Imagine it
wide open and going ahead full speed
through dense shoal of shrimps, a
porridge of small fry of all kinds.
Then think of those jaws suddenly
closing upon good substantial mouth
ul-substantial, that is to say, in pro-
portion to the mouth-and after the
water has filtered out through the
whalebone fringes into the sea again,
fancy the whale swallowing all it's cap
tives at snap, and then opening its
mouth for more. Compared to this the
hecatOmb was mere trif1ing with
sacrifice, a holocaust pure child's play.
Lives by the million. swirled gulp by
gulp down the monsters NAV; and
next day the same monster, torn into
shreds by the gladiator ''orca," lay
scattered over acres of the sea as food
for as many millions more; and what
combats the fish must see! How the
lobster must twiddle his long an
tenn9 with excitement, or the
octopus on the rock look up with con-
sternatiOn at the prodigious duels
of the rorquals, the leviathan encoun-
tiers of the cachalots! What a scat
tering of smaller folk there must be
when the lighting whales come up,
and in close battalion charge with their
ponderOus heads! Over what spacious
battle-lields the battle must range, and
how indescribably terrific the shock of
giants meeting in the green silence!
The conflict might be nightmare,
phantom struggle, but that the sea is
being dyed a deeper and deeper red
round the enormous combatants, and
that the furious impact of the great
bodies sends responsive vibrations
through the sensitive depths, telling
the jewellers on the sea-bed and in
the crannied rocks that the giants
are at war Or change the scene to
fine weather with summer horizon
unclouded, and peace everywhere
what a liberal education it must be to
a sprat or dish of whitehall to see
these Lords of the sea ranging tran
gully among their peers, and rolling
through unmeasured fathoms in care
less ease! To live under the water
and watch the whales sat home "
would be almost enough to reconcile
one to being fish.