The times., 1898-10-23

il-fish has its headquarters IN the North
ern Pacific, mostly along the American
coast, especially affecting the Gulf of
California. This huge creature is a man.
NAL, one of the great whale family, re-
ally a rorqual of medium size and mod
crate yield of oil. Like the rest of this
much-detested and feared (among whal-
ers) branch of the Cetacea, it carries but
| a tiny fringe of valueless whalebone, and,
| therefore, as compared with the sperm
| and right whales, its value is small.
| Yet at certain seasons of the year the
| American whaleships often think it
worth their while 70 spend a month or SO
| bay-whaling in some quiet inlet unknown
J to, and uncared for by, the bustling
merchantmen.
Only the elite of the Yankee whalemen,
| dexterous and daring as are all the tribe,
| can hope to get to windward of the dia-
| bolically cunning giants whom they
| abuse with such fluent and frequent
| flow of picturesque profanity. 1t is a pc
| culiar characteristic of this animal that
| it seems ever on the alert, scarcely ex-
| posing for one moment its broad back
above the sea-surface when rising to
spout and generally travelling, unlike all
its congeners not upon, but a few feet
below, the water. For this reason, and
in this fishery alone, the whalers arm
themselves with iron-shafted harpoons,
in order to strike with greater force and
certainty of direction whale some dis
tance beneath the surface. standing
order, too, among them is never by any
chance to injure a calf while the moth
er lives, since such an act exposes all
and sundry near the spot to imminent
and violent death.
Neglect of this most necessary precau-
tion. or more probably accident, once
brought about a calamity that befell
fleet of thirteen American whaleships,
which had been engaged in the bow
head" fishery along the ice foes of the
Arctic Pacific. In order to waste no
time they came south when winter set in,
and by common consent rendezvoused in
Margharita Bay, Lower California, for
month or two's devil fishing"
One bright morning, about three weeks
after the opening of the season, the whole
flotilla of tifty-two boats had been low
cred and were making their way as rap
idly as possible to the outlying parts of
the great bay keeping a strict lookout
for fish. Spreading out fanwise, they
were getting more and more scattered,
when about near the center of the fleet
some one suddenly Struck and got fast
to fish. But hardly had the intimation
been given when something very like
panic seized upon the crowd. In a mo-
ment or Two the reason was apparent.
From some cause, never definitely known,
harpooner had. In striking large COW
whale, transfixed her calf at her side
with his harpoon, killing 1t Immediately.
The mother, having quietly satisfied her
self that her offspring was really dead,
turned upon her aggressors like YER
liable demon of destruction, and while
carefully avoiding exposure of her body
to attack, simply spread devastation
among the flotilla. Whenever she arose
to the surface 1t was but for a second
to emit an expiration like the hiss of
lifting safety-valve. and almost always
TO destroy boat or complete the destruc-
ton of one already hopelessly damaged
Every blow was dealt with an accuracy
and appearance of premeditation that
filled the superstitious Portuguese, who
formed a good half of the crews, with
dismay-the more SO that many of them
could only guess at the original cause
of what was really going on. The speed
of the monster was SO great that her al
most simultaneous appearances at points
widely separated made her seem ubiaui-