Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1899-02-15
Monsters OF the Deep.

When a YouugStcr / was hoEleward
bound from SAINT Ana with a cargo of
mahogany. and when off Cape Campeche
was one calm afternoon leaning over the
taffraN looking down into The blue pro-
found on tho watch for fish, says a. writer
in the CornhiIi Magazine. \ gloomy
shade came over the bright water. ami up
rose a fearsome monster some eighteen
feet across. and in general outline more
like a skate or ray than 2nything else, all
except the head. There, what appeared
to be two curling horns about three feet
apart rose one ON each side of TIA most
horrible pair of eyes imasina Die. y
sharks eyes as he turns sideways; under
your vessels counter and Looks up to see
If any one is coming are ghaStiN, green
and cruel; but this things eyes We're all
these and much more. | felt that the
book of revelations WAS incomplete with
though quite sick and SiddX at the sight
of such a DOGGY. | could not move untn
the awful thing. suddenly waving what
seemed like mighty wings SCARED W out
of the water sounalessly to height OF
about six feet falling again with a thun-
derous splash that might have been
with fright. TOR the next thing ! was con
scious of was awakening under the rough
doctorins of my shipmates. Since then |
have never seen one leap upward in the
daytime Al night, when there Is no
wind the sonorous splash is constantly
to be heard, although why they make
ment is not easy to understand. II does
not seem possible to believe such aWe-iii-
spring horrors capable OF playful gam
boiling.
AT another time, while mate of bark
loading in the Tonala river, one Of the
| Mexican mahogany ports, was fishing
Il very stout line and hook for large fish
\ prowinS devil-tish picked up my bait
and feeling the hook. as suppose.
| sprang out of water with it. am al
most ashamed to say that | made 30 at
tempt to secure the thing, which was Il
comparatively small specimen, but al
| lnt cd tn. nrpht- t=.IF to nay
great relief, the hook broke. and iccov-
| cred the use Of my line. my evening $
sport quite spoiled
| Another widely known and feared tev-
| il-tish has its headquarters in the North
ern Pacific. mostly along the American
coast, especially affecting The Gut OF
| California. This huge creature is Il mann
NAL, one of the great whale family, real
| ly a rorqual of medium size and muder-
ate yield of oil. Like the rest of this
much-detested and feared (among what
erS) branch of the Cetacea. it carries but
| a tiny fringe of valueleSs whalcbouc. 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 il worth
! theirr. while to spend Il month or 50 bay
| whaling in some quiet inlet unknown to.
| and uncared for by, the busting mer-
chairman.
| Only the elite of the Yankee whale
men, deXterous and daring as are all the
| tribe, can hope to set windward Of the
| diabolically cunning giants whom they
| abuse with such fluent aud frequent How
Of picturesque profanity. 1t is peculiar
| characteristic of this animal that it
seems ever on the alert. scarcely expos
| ing Tor one moment its broad back above
the sea,surface when rising to Spout, and
generally travelling. unlike all its CON
geners. not upon, but "A few feet below
| the water For this reason. and in this
| fishery alone. the whalers arm them
selves with iron-shaftcd harpoons, III or
| der to strike with greater force ana GER
lainty of direction a whale some distance
beneath the surface. y standing order,
| too, among them is never by amy chance
| to iniure Il calf While the mother lives,
| since such an act exposes all and sun
| Dry near the spot to Imminent and vio-
| lent death.
Neglect of this most necessary precau-
ton, or more probably accident. once
tleet of thirteen American whalcships
which had been engaged III the bow
mead ilsherE among the icc-tloes of the
Arctic Pacific. In order to waste no time
they come south when winter set in, ana
py common consent Hendezvoused in Mar
sharita BAY lower California, for a
month or tWo's devil Gshing
one bright morning. about three weeks
after the opening OF the season, the whole
i1otllla of fity-tWo boats had been low
cred and were making their way as rap
idly as possible to the outlying parts Of
for fish. Spreading ont fanwise they
when about near the centre of the feet
some one suddenly struck and got fast
TO fish. iiut hardly had the intimat0n
been given when something very like
panic seized upon the crowd In !, ma
nent or two the reason was apparent.
from some cause, never definitely known,
whale, trarsiiNea hGr. calf at her side
with his harpo1n. killing il Immediately
! ne mother, having quietly satisfied her
self that her offspring was really dead.
turned upon her agsrrssors like a veri-
table demon of destruction and while
carefully, avoiding exposure Of her body