The Lehi banner. [volume] (Lehi, Utah) 1891-1917, 1903-02-26
(Cantinu,d from first page. }

reached the end OF his slack rope with
a jerk that shook the ship from sternto
stern. There was an instant tug of
war between the whale and there
versed engines, Then the whale won
and for a minute pulled the sessel for
ward with him. j.
Again the windass whirred aud
whizzed, but with diminishing SPEED
Far out at the end of his two miles %
rope. the whale churned and he'd the
water and blew big blasts 81 hq lrNnrtri
The crew saw the end and relaxed their
tensencss. They gefe him haitian hour
or so 10 end his commissions. Then the
captain shouted the order TO wind in
the rope.
AS the whale felt the pullhc gave one
feeble, dying jump. The men stopped
a minute then continued slowly 30 pull
I'm. Finally, the huge, inert, tlabby
body hoated belly upward, just ~ The
bow. They lowered n boat. pu-sod n
chain about the narrow circurirr9nce
where the tail widens and 'Clpliled
him TO the side Of the 'csetL could
see dozen quarreling porpoiscs cat
ing the tongue of the monster that
had been an hour before alive and, To
those scavengers, invincible. The cap
tain gave a sigh and u smile Of content
and leaned over the side 10 measure
with his eye the size of his prize The
crew busted themselves with loading
the harpoon gun again and putting
things in order.
All this was before Ave in the l0orn-
ind-and before breakfast. After tn e
meal, when we came - deck again,
there had risen a heavy Iceland wind
The captain shifted IL and glanced at
the choppy sea. Twill be a bad day
for the feesh," he said; and went aloft
To his bridge 60 watch with his glass
es for another blow" With the wind
came rain, aud the two did. indeed
make bad fishing. Not that the whales
went In out Of the wet, asan irreverent
sailor must tell the gulleless lands
men; there was scarce n time when we
could not see n dozen "blows" within
fve-mile radius. Often, when We
were not prepared for them, they
would swim right past MS with all tn,
dignity ~ an ocean liner speediuFpasi
n bobbiug fishing craft. They never
seemed 30 be merely browsing idly
around they were always swimming
In "A straight line, and always very fast
as II they had important business
| somewhere on the coast ~ Sweden
| when they were close 10y we could fol
| low them readily with the eye, and sec
! them rising and dipping at regular in
tcryals. Farther OF, milestones oi
their course were their "blows" II Il
! the one conspicuous mammal charac
teristic remaining 10 this eXpatriatet
| land animal who has chosen the en-
| yirnnmcnt Of fish for his abode; one,
in so often he must breathe Aud ~
his taking breath Involves blowing
20-fuot high pillar Of white yaror int,
the air. il is this mark of The beast
and OF the beasts natural habitat tina.
betrays him to his enemies.
Late in the afternoon the captain OF
the bridge swept the sea with hi
glasses, and saw no sign Of u blow
lie glanced at the sinking sun an,
measured with his eye the 90 miles I,
the harbor, lie dropped his glasse
and gave quiet order that meant tn
days work was done. The Deck wa
put in order, and the stocky It'll,
whaler, with her trophies grapple'
close 90 her side, set her bow tuwardl
the mainland. II was not for The wan
~ "nsh" that we had fishermau's llcl
that day. But the whaler was NJ
larger than tugbo0t The heavy SCI
tossed her about like O cork and aim
ing n cannon with so unsteady bas
as The Whaler's bow was dirlcult bust
ness even for the expert captain
Three times he fred aud mis- Is, an,
as il took an hour or two TO relaad tb,
gun and prepare the harpoou AM
bomb, Il was two o'clock In the after