The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-02-04
shut--(copyright 1907. by E. C. Par
NATURAL HISTORY,
Some Easy Lessons for New Begin.
nerS.
THE WHALE.

The whale is called the largest liv-
| ing thing that inhahits the deep.
| Why he was created with such bulk
| to him no one knows. He could have
bossed things just as we'll had he been
half as large, and his head and tail
| would not have half so much IN the
way No one has ever yet succeeded
in finding a whale asleep, but 1T is
generajIv believed that when night
comes he tumbIes into bed some -FOUR
or five miles below the surface OF the
ocean and has a good sleep.
When a whale is born he IS ABOUT
ten feet long, and for few days ne
goes around with grin on his race
and is allowed to play baby. Then the
serious part of life begins for him. he
must hunt for his own board and
lodgings and keep an eye out for the
whalers of New Bedford. 1t takes
twenty-five years for him to reach his
full growth, but he is having more
or less fun all the time. The DISPOSE
ton of a whale is naturally mild and
peaceful. He is willing to give every
body else a square deal, and wants one.
himself. If not provoked, he slips
around in modest way but when
sailors go to sticking harpoons into
him he gets mad and is reckless of
consequences.
When a whale is ready to die of
old age, he seeks out some lonely cove
along the shore and there gives up
the ghost and sinks down among the
coral and the plants, and the mer-
maids sing his funeral dirge. Some of
the fishermen at Barnegat claim to
have heard this singing. Once the
whale was hunted for his oil and
whalebone, but now he roams the sea
undisturbed and only occasionally
meets a craft from Massachusetts and
hears the captain swearing the same
old swear-Word. ~ sl'4l@'-
THE SHARK So 80 -
There are only three species of
sharks that devour human beings but
as they are very Industrious and al
ways blessed with good appetites they
manage to take care of all sailors who
fall overheard. Much that has been
written about the shark is untrue.
He cannot spring aboard of sailing
vessel and seize the mate in his jaws
and leap back into the water to de-
YOUR him, and he does not make a
sound like singing at night to entice
the sailors overheard. He simply goes
his way. attends strictly to the shark
business, and generally turns up
when Their is festival on hand 30
In the stomach of a shark killed
in the Pacific Ocean a few years ago
was found a key of beer, an iron ket-
tie, an axe. a tin pail. two bricks and
9 teapot. He was probably moving to
set up housekeeping somewhere else.
A shark has been known to dash into
the surf where a fat old lady was
bathing and seize and carry her off,
and she was never heard of elsewhere.
but as a general thing no bather need
fear them. The cat-boat men at At
lantic City will tell you many tales of
sharks, and in doing so will also tell
you many whoppers. AS a rule, four
81 'rlEs go in company, and any sailor
who falls in their way is divided into
four equal portions. This makes mat.
tiers satisfactory all around.
THE LION.
The lion is still found in several
countries, but is growing so few in
numbers that a few more years will
much account anyhow He has a grea
roar on him, but when the other beasts
get used to 1t they don't pay any more
attention than we do to political speak
ers during a campaign. All a lion has
to do in his wild state is to wander
around and kill his food and sleep. He
could do that as a hyena and save the
roaring.
In a domestic state the lion does as
little for his pay as possible. When
he isn't sleeping he is sitting up and
trying to see how stupid he can look.
If he roars, he only puts half his lung
power into it, and the sound is hardly
more than a fat man trying to cough
il UP. Every one of his efforts costs
the Zoo folks over g dollar in cash.
The lion will disappear from the earth
in time, but he won't be missed. For
years past many of US had rather go
fishing than to watch the king of
beasts.
In some of the school books the
story is told of a lion that got a thorn
in his paw and went up to hunter to
have it pulled it out. The hunter act