Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-06-17
BIG SEA GAME.
For Real Sport the Hunter Should At
tack the ROrquni.
From the London Telegraph.

From the London Telegraph.
The seeker after big sea game should at
tack the rorqual If he would see sport
indeed. For this agils monster has such
reputation for almost supernatural cunning
that even If he were as valuable as he
really is valueess commercially, 1t is high
ly doubtful if he would ever be molested.
AS it is, all the tribe are chartered liber-
tines, since no whaleman is likely to risk
the loss of a boats gear for the barren
honor of conquest. And not only so, but
the rorquals, whether 'fin-back, sulphur
bottom" or 'blue-back," as well as the
"hump-back' and grampus, make it a
point of honor to sink when dead, unlike
the "cachalot'' or ''bowhead,' who float
awash at first, but ever more buoyanty as
the progress of decay within the immense
abdominal cavity generates an accumulat-
ing volume of gas. Any old whaleman
would evolve in the interests of sport no
end of lodges for dealing with the willy
rorqual, such as collection of strongly
attached bladders affixed to the line TO
stay his downward rush, short but broad
barbed harpoons, to get a batter hold upon
the thin. coating of blubber, etc. In this
kind of whaling there is quite suthclent
danger to make the sport exciting IN the
highest degree. Not, however, from the
attack of the animal hunted, but because
his evoluuonS in the effort to escape are so
marvelously viyacious that only the most
prevent a sudden severance of the MENUS
between boat and crew.
A splendid days sport can be obtained
with a school of blackfish. Although sell
dom exceeding a ton and a 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 harpooned one after the other on a sim
gle line, as the whalers custom is. The
sensation of being harnessed as 1t were to
trio of monsters, each about twenty-five
feet long, and eight feet in girth, every one
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 heav-
ing 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 everyday life upon the
bright free wave again.
Even school of porpoises, in default of
nohler game, can furnish a lively hour or
two, especially if they be of fair size, say
up to three or four hundredWeight each.
But of a truth there need be no fear of
lack of game. The swift passage from port
to port made by passenger vessels is apt to
leave the voyager 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-popu alton
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 leisurely lettering along the wide
plains of ocean, shall find each day new
world unfolding itself before his astonished
eyes, a world of maryels. infinitely small,
as well as wondrous great-from the thou
sand and one miracles that go to make I'D
the PIankton' to the antediluvian whale
flshlng IN its mere heroic phases is obtain
able in deep-sea cruising as nowhere else