Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1891-08-07
SUNNI Err SEAS.
Interesting Account of Some of the Mon.
sters of the Deep.

ABOUT year ago the pa
pers reported the strange ad.
venture of an American steamer
in the neighborhood of Cape Hatteras,
North Carolina, where the man at tie
helm one morning caught sight of large
school of whales, that came rapidly nearer,
and played about the vessel for nearly
twenty-four hours.
There were about a hundred in the
school, and some of them seemed
to take delight in darling
all around the ship, like a
romping dog around his master Others
hung back and made a sudden squirt to
catch up with their playmates while
few dived under the keel of the boat,
and come up on tle other side. That
trick, however, brought one of them to
grief. In diving a little too far back he
seemed to have had a collision with the
machinery of the steamer, and when he
came up again the sea all around was
colored with blood. His companions
possibly thought that some one had hurt
him on purpose; at least, they skunk back
and soon disappeared.
While they were In sight, the steamer
was more than once at the point of run
ming one of them down and getting badly
Jared, but their gambols interested the
passengers so much, that the captain did
nothing to drive them away and all who
witnessed the curious scene must have got
convinced that whales by no means limit
their haunts to the polar seas
An idea indeed, somehow got abroad,
that on dry land animal life abounds
most in the neighborhooG of the equator,
while the largest and most numerous sea
creatures are found among the icebergs
The explanation of the latter notion is
this; there are sea animals which once
abounded on the coasts of all oceans, till
constant persecution forced them to re-
treat to safer regions, sush as the polar
seas, or the lonely islands of the South
era Pacific. But wherever hunters give
then. few years rest, those refugees re-
turn to their former haunts, in the war.
mer ATTITUDES, and their large num-
bers prove that, with rare exceptions,
marine mammals and fish love
warm weather, as well as birds and but
terflies
On the coast of South America, for
instance, there are rocks where seals are
much more numerous than in any part of
the polar zone Small seals, and large
seals, and creatures with long nose.like
shouts, known as "sea elephants, " fire.
quent the rocks in countless multitudes,
and ut certain times of the year keep up a
noise that can be heard for miles, and
which the superstitious Spaniards explain
ina way of their own. Every year they
say 1.-THE seals send out spies to find out
where the coast Is safest, and after those
messengers bring in their reports, the
whole assembly have a general council
and decide after much shrieking and
quarreling, where they are going to pass
the next summer
The true explanation is probably that
tie males of q seal herd fight every spring,
but the roars rising above the boom of the
breakers near certain cliffs on the coast of
Chill can certainly give one an idea that
the sea monsters of all South America had
met in general convention. At sight Of
a boat the members of the assembly plung
into the sea by scores and 10y hundreds at
a time, but they are extremely quick In
ascertaning their mistake if the fishers
come only after Holsters, or on any similar
peaceful errand. Nay, in the cource of a
few years il is byno means impossible to
get seals so tame that they pay no atten'
ton to the approach of human beings, or
even frequent certain points where they
know that they will be protected. The
rocks below the San Francisco
Cliff House for instance are haunted
by sea lions that gambol about
with perfect Indifference to the
neighborhood of multitude Of sight.
seerS and often. some so close that theg
could be hit by boys ball. But nobody
ever troubles them: on the contrary, the
hotel keeper makes his cooks fling them
all sort Of offal and the ''hons" as the
neighbors call them for short, seem to
have informed their trends that the place
is good stoping-place for travellers, for
now and then extra large or peculiarly
eolored specimens appear on the cliffs for
few hours, and then perhaps are not
seen again for months. Children occa-
sionally Chamber down to the waters edge,
in full sight of the seals, and without scar.
ing them in the least.
In the polar seas it would be extremely
difficult to get any of their relatives so
tame The raids OF polar bears have