The Winslow mail., 1899-08-03
BIG SEA GAME.
For Real Sport the Adventurous Hun.
ter Should Attack the Cum
ming ROrquaI.

The seeker after big sea game should
attack the rorqual if he would see sport
indeed. For this agile monster has
such a reputation for almost super
natural cunning that even II he were as
valuable as he really is valueless COM
mercially, it is highly doubtful if he
would ever be molested. AS 1T is, all the
tribe are chartered libertires, since no
whaleman is likely to risk the loss OF
boats gear for the barren honor OF
conquest. And not only so, but the
rorouals. whether ''fin-back,' "sul-
phur-bottom'' or "blue-back, as well
as all the ''hump-back" and grampus,
make it point of honor to sink when
dead. unlike the 'cachalot' or bow
head" who float awash at first, but ever
more buoyantly as the progress OF de-
cav within the immense abdominal cav
ity generates an accommodating volume
of gas. Any old whaleman would evolve
in the interests of sport no end of
lodges for dealing with the willy ror-
dual, such as a collection of strongly
attached bladders affixed to the line to
stay his downward rush, short but
broad-barbed harpoons, to get better
hold upon the thin coating of blub-
Der, etc. In this kind of whaling there
is quite sufficient danger to make the
sport exciting in the highest degree.
Not, however, from the attack of the
animal hunted, but because his evolu-
tions in the effort to escape are SO mar
velously vivacious that only the most
expert and cool-headed craftsmanship
can prevent sudden severance of the
nexus between boat and crew.
A splendid days sport can be OBJ
tanned with school of blackfsh. AL
though seldom exceeding a ton and
half in weight, these small whales are
quite vigorous enough to make the
chase of them as lively an episode as the
most enthusiastic hunter could wish,
especially if two or even three are har-
pooned one after the other on single
line, as the whalers' custom is. The
sensation of being harnessed, as it
were, to trio of monsters, each about
25 feet long and eight feet of
girth, everyone anxious to flee in
a different direction at the highest
speed he can muster, and in their united
gambols making the sea boil like
pot, is one that, once experienced, is
never likely to be forgotten. The mere
memory of that mad frolic over the
heaving bosom of the bright sea makes
the blood leap to the face, makes the
nerves twitch and the heart long to
be away from the placid round of ev-
eryday life upon the bright free wave
again.
Even a school of porpoises, in default
of nobler game, can furnish a lively
hour or two, especially if they be of
fair size, say, up to 300 or 400 hundred
weight each. But of a truth there need
be no fear of lack of game. The swift
passage from port to port by the pas
senger vessels is apt to leave the voy-
ager with the impression that the sea
is a barren waste, but such an idea
is wholly false. Even the sailing ships,
bound though they may be to make
the shortest possible time between
ports, are compelled by failure of wind
to see enough of the everyday life of
the sea population to know better than
that, and whose gives himself up to the
glamour of sea study, making no haste
to rush from place to place, but leisure
ly lettering along the wide plains of
ocean, shall find each day new world
itself before his astonished
eyes, a world of marvels, infinitely
small, as we'll as wondrous great-from
the thousand and one miracles that 90
to make up the "Plankton" to the ante
diluvian whale. Fishing in its mere
heroic phases is obtainable in deep-sea
cruising as nowhere else.-London Tel
egram.