The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-04-08
SEA BOTTOM, A
BATTLE-GROUND
Mightier Conflicts Than on
Land Waged There.
BLOODY BLUE WHALE
King of Monsters and Uncle
Sans After Him.

New York. April 4.-The New York
World says:
Somewhere down deep under the berss
of the artic seas there is a blue whale
which the government wants for the Ma
tional Museum.
Day by day this giant whale which mas
been doomed by the United States boats
floats like a huge blue cloud along the
mysterious bottom of the frozen seas,
fighting its daily battles with the fig
squids and the strange sea monsters On
which it lives and without a suspicion
OF its ultimate fate.
No game country in the world can rival
in the horror of its hourly tragedies or
the density of its population the haunts
of the blue whale.
Imagine a submarine forest of giant
ferns. OF trailing and deadly papilae
which clasp and cling and kill. On every
hand are beautiful and brilliant sea anem-
ones.
Slow. great shadows of monstrous
things hover in the blue armament over
head Swift schools Of fish. always fly
ing for their lives, whirl by in nervous
terror
Grim spiders with legs ten feet long
hand from one coral branch ready IN
seize anything that may come within rs
reach. What appears to be a black cav
ern mouth, with half a dozen red flowers
dangling at the entrance, is the open
mouth of a monstrous silurian fish. The
red tentacles are his bait.
Sluggish and vast and lying for months
In one spot, it has barely enough intelli-
gence to snap its long, sharp fangs upon
any fish that may venture within reach.
Big Holsters crawl hither and thither.
green and repulsive On the crags of the
gray coral turks the huge devil fish. witt
tentacles twenty or thirty feet in length
clutching and clinging blindly to any
thing that may come within reach.
The entire sea bottom is a battle-ground
"a bloody amphitheatre where no quarter
is given or looked for.
Mr.. Frank T. Bullen the marine writer
thus describes the ceaseiess vigils an1
the endless battles of the monsters in the
haunts of the blue whale in his ''Idyls
of the Sea-:
"AIl imaginative minds are impressed
by the profundities of the sea, the raw
less gloom and uniform cold, where in
calculable pressures bear upon all bodies,
so that cylinders of massive steel &c
fattened into disks and water percolates
through masses of metal as though they
were of muslin.
But there is yet another aspect of the
oceanic wonders that engages the medita-
tions of comparatively few, and this is
perhaps the most marvellous of them all.
olex Nf
meath the waves war is being incessant-
ly waged which knows no truce-ruthiess,
unending and universal.
ION earth the struggle for existence Is
a terrible one, exciting all our sympathies
when we witness its pitiiessness. But the
fauna of the land are by an enormous
majority herbivorous, mild in their habits
and terrified at the sight of blood.
In striking contrast to this condition
are The tribes o. ocean. They are all de-
vourers of each other. and, with the eN-
ception of the mammalia and the sharks
make no distinction in favor of their own
species
Vast as is the ocean. the fecundity Of
most Of its denizens is well known to be
so great that without effective checks
always in operation the waters would be-
come vast pestilential pools.
The life of herring. for instance, is
a series of miraculous escapes AS
their enemies are so numerous that it is
hard TO understand how they ever become
fish.
Yet. even devoured by the million. they
exist through various stages, become fat
and vigorous and many Of them die in
- ~i.~.Nr-
however. are probably not a hiiliontf
part Of the entire number spawned.
But these are small and limid lives com
pared to those lurking in the abyssma
depths Of the ocean
Here the tabled gkrsken, or the dew!
fish. turks. and here the blue whale
sounding down through great depths
comes upon him.
The enormous haccid bulk of the gian
souid needs a continual slaughter 10 sup
ply its food OF digestive juices. and thai
need is abundantly supplied by tbs
strange things that come within his grasp
Rushing straight at his enemy, the blue
whale. regardless OF beak Of tenacles
drags him from the rocks and. ieavin9
an inl,v streak behind. makes for th'
surface with his prey in his jaws.
R,lt this is a mere incident of the con
slant warfare and struggle for existence
Close 10 the surface the putting gram
nus hurls himself like a marine cata
putt into the midst of q school Of POI
poise.
Although inconceivably swift. their
epeed does not save them. After then
comes the flying enemy. He overtake
them. rips them asunder. tears them u
and devours them at leisure
And see the hugs albacore leap into {
school OF bonito. What a terrified scat
tering and scampering there IS! Tn
albacore keeps his razor-like jaws clip
ping like e pair OF shears. scattering n
fragments OF his victims about him =
showers.
In like manner the victims in turn p,al
the dcstroyer's part. Up from the depte
OF the sea burst a school 81 flying FISH an,
after them leap the bonito.. ravaGins N,
devouring them by thousands.
These are but small phases Of the Sc
tragedies necessarily IN progress. III
swordfish. that cruel submarine ram
iances the whale with his long nasa
weapon until the Sea is red with blood
In spite of ianumerahIe enemies. sue
as swordhsh. Jhreshers and killers.
the blue whale is stu ruler Of the entir
ocean floor.
Ills natural. prey is the devl fish
Sometimes he catches the giant squa
on the surface OF the sea. where. OWN
20 his lack of proper anchorage, he be
comes a rather easy victim.