but ineffectual use of its powerful flukes and pectoral fins. I f H B H | &
the Whale to stop to fight they seldom allow g to escape, r a n g
attacked about the head, and if the Killers succeed in getting the Whale to open
its mouth, they at once attempt to seize and tear out its tongue.
‘ The White Whale and seals,’ says Dr. Brown, ‘ often run ashore in terror
of this Cetacean, and I have seen seals spring out of the water when pursued
bv it The whalers hate to see it, for its arrival is the signal for every Whale
to leave that portion of the ice.' Eschricht records that from the stomach of a
Killer 21 foot long, he took no fewer than thirteen Porpoises and fourteen seals.
Newfoundland seal-hunters have told me many strange tales of the icefields,
and in these the Killer often plays a prominent part. It is stated as a fact
that both sharks and Killers will press on the edge of a floating sheet of ice,
on which seals have taken refuge, until they have ‘ tipped’ it over, and so have
the animals at their mercy. One man, Robert Saunders, whose veracity I had no
occasion to doubt, told me that while he was skinning some young seals on a
piece of ice, two adult harp seals rushed from the water and took refuge by his
Side; immediately afterwards the black fin of the Killer appeared, as the animal
coursed past searching for its prey.
Along the Labrador coast and to the north-west of Iceland Killers and blue
sharks are so numerous that the Fin-whalers dare not ‘ cast off’ the carcase of
the slaughtered Whale; before they could rescue it, it would be torn- to pieces.
They will at times attack the body of the Whale when it is lashed to the
steamer. On one day in June 1903, Johann Johanssen, a whaler, killed seventeen
Killers in the Straits of Belleisle by stabbing them with a long lance from the
bows of the I Puma.’ I .
Hans Andersen, mate of the ‘ Queen Alexandra, gave me the following
account of an attack by Killers, on the day after it occurred in 1904. ‘ Yesterday
we were about thirty miles north of Unst when Captain Stokken shot at a big Finner.
The harpoon struck the m a l e too far back and too high, and the bomb did
not burst. After running only a short way the m a l e came to the surface and
began lashing about. At the same moment I saw a flock of about twenty “ Sprek-
huggeren” (Killers) coming up from leeward, so I ran down to the cabin and got
my rifle. After I had fired eight or ten shots, of which they took no notice, the
Sprekhuggeren saw our Whale and made for it with great speed. At first the
big Whale made the water white with his flippers; then it dived and our rope
went out at such a speed I have not seen before. After running a mile the rope
broke owing to the great strain, and we lost our Whale. When the Whale was
first attacked I looked to windward, where there were many Finbacks spouting,
and saw a great commotion. Whales in all directions were lashing the sea and
making off to the north at best speed. We could not find one for another day.’
Captain Scammon, who witnessed an attack of Killers on two Californian
Grey Whales, says1: ‘ They made alternate assaults upon the old Whale and her
offspring, finally killing the latter, which sank to the bottom where the water was
five fathoms deep. During the struggle the mother became nearly exhausted,
having received several deep wounds about the throat and lips. As soon as
their prize had settled to the bottom the three Orcas descended, bringing up
large pieces of flesh in their mouths, which they devoured after coming to the
surface.’ He also tells us that Killers will cluster round the head of a large
Whale, while some of their number ‘ breach’ over it; others seize it by the lips
and haul the unfortunate victim under water, when, should it open its mouth,
they tear out its tongue. They have no fear of men in boats, and will attack
the carcase which is being towed to the ship.
In northern waters the Killer lives chiefly on the young of various Whales, on
seals and young walruses; a favourite victim is the adult White Whale. ‘ They
will sometimes,’ writes Captain Scammon, ‘ be seen peering above the surface with
a seal in their bristling jaws, shaking and crushing their victims, and swallowing
them apparently with great gusto.’
The Killer is not, according to the southern whalers, without its virtues; it
is the great enemy of the short-nosed shark or ‘ grey nurse.’ A writer in the
‘ Field,’ 2 describing this voracious fish, says: ‘ The only thing in its own element
that it fears is the “ Killer’’— that valorous little and well-toothed minor Whale
known to science as Orca gladiator— the bulldog of the ocean and the friend of
the whaleman in the Pacific. Concerning the “ Killer ” I may mention that there
are hundreds of instances where whaleboats have been stove in or underclipped
by the flukes of a Sperm Whale, and the crews have either to swim for their lives
or cling to bits of the broken boat, that the attending “ Killers ” have actually
swum up to the men and smelt, or, as the American whalemen say, “ nosed ” them,
and then started off again in pursuit of the wounded Whale, intent upon getting
some share of the delicious blubber before a second boat made fast to the great
creature killed and towed it to the ship. I f it were a “ Right ” Whale the “ Killers
would be satisfied with tearing out and devouring its tongue and taking their
1 Marine Mammalia, p. 90. * April 1, 1905.