Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1890-09-04

And l saw .ne case where the bomb
went in at the whales side and after
the thing exploded, he never stirred.
It killed him instantly. Such cases
IRE uncommon"
lis it true that whales ever attack
boats and take them into their
mouths?" inquired the artist, hitch
ing a little nearer.
Eyes, 'tis," replied Captain Will
Jams. "1don't doubt that thou
sand lies have been told about such
things. but I've seen it done, and If l
tell you this story don't want you
to think I'm codding Of you. We'd
been having tolerably poor luck and
this whale, he'd been struck and we
were waiting for the proper time to
come to pull up and lance or shoot
him. The Captain was anxious
about it, and he ordered u boat for
ward too soon. 1t went up. Twas
in another boat not far away, and
the mate stood ready to use the lance,
when the whale turned suddenly and
grabbed the boat in the middle,
square in his mouth. The men were
all spilled, Of course, and the boat
crunched to bits. Another boat
picked up all the men, while | pulled
up and went for the whale. He could
have made it troublesome for us if he
hadn't been such plaguey fool as
to go to butting the wrecked boat.
He would draw back a few yards and
then go forward, smashing his nose
against the wreck, or plank, and
he would snap up splinters OF wood,
mere chips, though l was plugging
bombs into him all the while. He
drew back and butted five times and
before we made him quit I had fired
four bombs into him, and had got in
five thrusts with a hand lance.
"That's pretty tough one, sup
pose, but every words true, and
here's another just exactly as true
and not mite laid on. The trouble
came from the same cause as before,
too much anxiety and not waiting
until the whale was exhausted be-
fore lancing. The first mate drove his
boat up close to the whale and just as
the mate was going to lance the whale
gave flip with his jaw against the
boat, nearly capsized it, and spilled
out every man but one. That one
was the mates son, young fellow
on his first cruise. The mate had
told me that he couldn't swim, and
that if anything happened l was to
look out for him, SO pulled up
smart. wasn't fur away. After
giving that flip the whale lay there
still with his mouth open. A man in
the water, you know will grasp any
thing. Well, the mate came up right
by the whale IS ia and the first thing
he did was to fling his arm over it
and hold on. Over the whales jaw?
Certainly, the lower one, Of course.
! yelled to the boy in the boat to
reach his father an oar and pull him
aboard. The boy did the best he
could, Int the mate finding it hard
to hang on with one arm, threw n
leg over the edge OF the jaw and the
fool of a whale never shut his mouth;
just lay there gawping until the hoy
got an oar where his ia Their could lay
hold, and somehow or other pulled
him aboard. Then we picked up the
other men and finished the whale.
The mate acted curious about that
again: swore he hadn't been in the
whales mouth at all, but he had,
half of him at least, for some little
time, and we proved it to him later.
Three or four hours after it was all
over he complained of pains in his
leg, and when we examined him to
see what was the matter there were
the plain red prints of three whale
teeth that had been made by his
weight as he struggled there on that
lower jaw. Twas perfectly sure, you
see: whales teeth are SO big, those
that have any, that just about three
would be all that could touch a man q
leg in that position. But then, we
saw it all and that settles it. and the
mate had to be convinced by the
marks ON his New York Her.
aid