Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 January 1893 — WHALES THAT ARE FIERCE. [ARTICLE]

WHALES THAT ARE FIERCE.

Bloodthirsty Monsters Which Hunt In Packs Like Wolves. “ I won’t deny that some sharks are fierce,” said a sea captain to a Star reporter, ‘ ‘ but they’re not by any means the most ferocious creatures that swim. In my opinion not even the blue maneaters are so bloodthirsty as a certain kind of whale. You imagined that whales were fnild and harmless animals, did you T Well, it depends upon the species. I’m talking about the ‘killer ’ whales. They are not very big—only about sixteen totwenty feet long—but there isn’t anything they can’t whip. “You9eethe killer whales hunt in packs like wolves, Other whales are their favorite game, but, bless you,, there isn’t anything.they won’t attack, unless perhaps it is a man. Just because they haven’t got an appetite for human flesh,, like sharks, they haven’t earned the same sort of reputation for ferocity. But you can take my word for it that there aren’t any carnivorous beasts on land that are more bloodthirsty. I’ve seen them assail full-grown walruses aud rob them of their young, and on one occasion I saw a killer whale cut open which had thirteen porpoises and fourteen sealsin its stomach.

“I once saw a pack of killer whales make an attack upon a gray cow whale and her calf. They surrounded her and began actually to tear her to pieces. The calf was three times as big as any one of the assailants, but they quickly killed it, the carcass sinking to the bottom. They followed it down and came up with huge fragments of flesh in their mouths. While they were thus engaged the mother swam away, leaving a bloody track behind her. lam very sure that the story so often told in print about combats between swordfish and thresher sharks have their origin in fights where killer whales were engaged. They are true whales, you understand. Their back fins are about six feet high and look like enormous daggers as they project above the surface of the water. “Killer whales are so strong and swift that they are very rarely captured. Sofar as I can ascertain the only people who hunt them are the 3lakah Indians of Washington State, who are very fond of their flesh and fat. The conical teeth are sometimes sold as curiosities. Killera are plentiful in Atlantic waters. Very often they are useful to the fishermen, driving schools of black fish ashore on Cap Cod, Nantucket and elsewhere. They are afraid of nothing and have been known to half devour a big whale while it was being towed to the ship after being harpooned.”