THE FAMILIAR UNKNOWN.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14758, 30 August 1913, Page 12

THE FAMILIAR UNKNOWN.

"The most familiar object is often the least known." (Bγ 'The Watchma*.") I (SPECIALLY WRITTEN* FOR "iHB TKESS.") Xo. 33. THE TALE OF THE WHALE. Since Sumner has taken to whaling. Mr O. T. J. Alpers has discoursed about the way Mr MeNab has discoursed on whales of the past, tho wholo bcachsido population, from Brighton, north and south, arises and scans the. beach, uncertain whether it is going to capture before breakfast a frost fish, a humpback, or a flying ambergris. So the story of the one. active o!d-time-new-timo whaling station that keeps its business ends sharp within telescope of the Port Hills, e-liould prove at this psychological moment of the most soul-stimng, heart-thumping, brain-thrilling interest —nearly as moving as a Wild-V.'esterly-bustor at the picture sliow. IN SOUTH BAY. The whaling station is at South Bay. a beautiful iniot in the sen meadows nestling under tho cliffs of Kaikoura Peninsula, near the Kaikoura Racecourse and the Kaikoura tJoif Links. It used to be on the other side, but the wives of tho shareholders used up so much can do cologne when business was brisk, that tho whalers didn't know whether it was more economical to catch whales or not to catch them, so when the sport became fashionable again they shifted camp over the hills. You have to go over the hills from the town to get to them, by a slippery track in the beautiful lawn-like hill paddocks. If business is brisk you can't miss it in the dark, any more than you could fail by following your nose- to find the cheese shop in Liiuburg. SOUXI>S WHALERS. Once at the station you find that the whalers of to-day are divided into tho main body of the Bay inhabitants —descendants of the dusky warriors of the Kaikoura of old —and a crew of three men in a power-boat from Blenheim. They are the new comers. Up to my visit theirs was the only "catch of the season." They are mighty men at whales, the men of Marlborough. The day I was in South Bay I read in tho Kaikoura paper—which gave as its authority the angling contributor of the Picton press—that three parties at Te Awaite had already this season captured 22 whales, including a "record" catch of three in one day. How many brace they have landed in the past fortnight I can't tell you. The particular Marlborough crew that is performing at South Bay just now dropped in one day, promiscuous like, with their oil-launch at Kaikoura, Nicholls, and Smith and another, before continuing their explosive way to the try-pots of the Bay. Smith was an old Kaikoura boy, so had simply come back. WHALES WITH "THE HUMP." The new-comers speedily "found." They first-sighted a couple of whales, a respectable, middle-aged couple, apparently of commercially valuable embonpoint. Both had the hump. Whales with the hump are not so valuable as "right" whales, and they are much more dangerous to interfere with. It's the same with humans. Well, the oil-launch spluttered out after these two passers-by on the whale route, and from the gun in the bows a harpoon was sent with a sickly thud into on« of the pair. There is a bomb attached to these harpoons, a horrid Norwegian invention; but the old fellow was so upset by the liberty taken with him. in the presence of his wife, that before they could give him the shock of his life, he turned over, tangled up their line, and made off with the whole contraption, harpoon, and bomb, and rope and all, including a lot of whale "language" from the disgusted launch crew. Ho was a very much annoyed bull whale. No wonder. They would have killed him probably, had they not been too greedy. They wanted the whole family. They got one, with the second barrel, so to speak and they went after a third, and shot an irreverent harpoon into him, too, but he also got away. Per- . haps it was one of these that fetched Sumner. * "THICK WID 'EM." Whales are as thick in these parts nowadays as politicians at election times. Off the South Bay there is a narrow passage, about 16 chains long, between the end of the reef and the outlying rocks, and a fisherman counted sixteen wiales passing through it on one day of this month. How many there were when he wasn't looking, or stopped to roll a cigarette, or haul up a hapuka, he couldn't say. But he is, I am assured, quite veracious and reliable—for a fisherman —and as he isn't an amateur angler, and wasn't fishing for whales himself, no doubt he may be believed. . The great nuthorit} , on whales amongst Kaikoura's business men is Mr Flower, who has been "grubstaking" the Maori whalers —Norton's and Jackson's party, and he vouches for the story. A MATTER OF NERVES. Whales are great tourists and explorers. They come up here from the Antarctic, and Mr Flower is, quite seriously, inclined to attribute the exceptionally large number that are calling at Kaikoura to the way the Antarctic has "been crowded with expeditions of late, and the way Norwegian whalers have been stirring things up there. Tho beastly bustle of it is too much for cetacean nerves. There have be-en more whales seen this season off Kaikoura than even in the old days, before anyone dreamed that tnpleserewed turbine ferry boats would disturb the peace of the 6cas from Lyttelton north. So far, they have b-en all hump-bnrked whales. These begin coming about July, and the "right" whnles don't call in till this week and next month, tnonsh occasionally a pair of right whales will come earlier, but that is only if they are hon-"y-mooning. and the mere fact of their coming ahead of the season like that creates a eortain susp : cion that they are not all tbat they should be — that they have perhaps eloped, and pa and ma, or an irate and deserted gpo'ise rr>ny be following in pursuit. , The wTin.les strike the const off R?nks Peninsnln. come in accntn by Arnnri Bluff, and th'-n in to the rocks off Kaikoura Peninsula.

KUBBTXG WOSE3. They favour KVkoura for the same reason that blessings were sa : d to be callorl down on a certain , Dnko of Argyll. Also they stinnly possibly the origin of the 31aori custom of the hond. They conic to "rub nose?." J' list imagino how yon would ferl if you had a mosquito pcrrranently established on your n'ise. and hadn't a hand to Knf-n ifc off. Well, it's worse with a ivhale. He can't wine his nose any way, no irntter how bad a cold he may have caucht, and so prreat barnnpJes just set up their domestic estnblishnionts and rnisc their families there. Ouoer phrl'fis'i. oysters possibly, too, join them. Think of having two and a half dozon luscious oysters from yonr upper lir>, and not able to take onoin' Well, they come nlong to where are bold rocks like Kaikoiira to w-pe their noses on them, and squash off as mnnv of the barnacles as they can. And it is the same with +h«ir cheek* an shonl'Ws. There is ant to be a barnacle farm there, too, nnd anywhere el«=e that there is ojxjn space. ' Also wVrover uiere is a fold in the skin there are the, whale s equivalent to fleas-things Lko email j

lobsters. It isn't as if tiijck skinned either £1 *"***«« thin-skinned poor beast as HL^i I *® • of ski a in to t Flo»erVs They aro like a crinklul «,r i-wfi paper, full o f ttßy ZW sponchng to the mm* of onrSLHI &o the whale comes alon<r and Z* himself all he knows* ka.koura rocks, b.foro fcT* vW warmer seas, via Ru Ssc l! *v? s*ol Cape and Torres siraS* SI ot tho tourists turn woit-abon* 3*41 they get off Cook StraUT*/*! through. it for Torres Aivf 4 Sit stead of up the East Coit 2>l ' North Island, thus avoiding wJ?fi There is probably some for this, and I have no doubt land members will ask a nn«»i«L 54b it. Even Mr Flowers fiffM what it is. and he doesn't know whaler or writer person wLo T where tho whale goes after through Torres Straits before I** s *! back to the Antarctic again mind yon. whales live to a Tej t'B old nge aiid make the trip mantimes. """Vilfcjl

IN THE WINDWARD BLjg, I happened the other day to fce»£S i"? " n 3r I t; . c, f on s) ! or , e wha 'iagiaS \\ mdward Isles, and the author ri** most graphic description of tiuselL* of hump-backed whales for thekW which the West Indian negroes lM 1 as a great delicacy. This writ&S! that tho whaling season tkv January to May. when the whaViJ through the Windward Islands eik way to the colder waters of the V Atlantic." Tho hump-hack shore and the rocks as he doea rtE ivoura. while the deep-watrr-'net whale keeps further out. If tWj! tho Kaikoura callers, they wodjw spent nearly Evo months on theres? north. ™

A BORN FIGHTEB. % Tho hump-back —his Sunday ujj«i Migaptora versatilis —ia nothing & as desirable and valuable a viator, tho right-whale, Jackson's Maoris haven't even troubiwh t&& after "such trash." They learetto to the men. Mr estimated tlio value of the one Ibl 1 saw —and smelt —at £50. There be about four or five tons ton is 252 gallons), and the Jnjj, backed whalo is as worthy of hate; reputation as "game ,, on theseaij£ whales are a few days after been out of it. Strike a and he gives up his valuable lifevigout much struggle. Strike a W back as he goes singing on ha way after rubbing off the idrfiKJa (wlialos do "sing." though c ivana3efS ard ho is all fight straight a*».£ will plunge ar.d tear and race imfa and have at you and smash ycnirlg and your line, and if you haeetU bomb to quieten him with a nasi;® below the belt, he will drag yonr boat after him at thirty miles and miles ard miles, qaiieC*& tcrniined to make you wish wfl nevor struck him before yoa *Jtrj pulled back all tho way- againsf ■>,& wind with the corpse—that '.is.'if'joi haven't got a power boat. Thatm why they didn't hunt humps 'wA till they "got bombs. Ard after all ffe game chap has the satisfaction' 4 knowing that you will have only abet: £50 to divide for all the scare he en you, and the sweaty of getting jej home, and cooking him. " • . „'-;

QUEER BEASTS.

And here, for some etrange ftutftj they only take the blubber. They dos'j cat whale meat, which is indistingmiable from the best steak, and ttkxL the Maoris used to eat *nd, tit Esquimaux and latmj other pwjfo do eat. Of course every one knowjri whale isn't a fish. Hβ ie "as essenM; a mammal" as a bullock is, or a bars, with a non-conducting coat of bhife to keep him warm in the cold wafer. As you can see for. yourself if yoop down to the museum ho has usj peculiarities that are not of tfrfcl, fishy, including limbs with aUtkiwa and" joints—and even eonieref- ffij nuiscles-7-of your own arms ins WE. Ho has even hair on nn n\>y« w and cliiri, besides being the «igjii;VM far as the right whale is «n«nw| possibly of the term "hairy too'Atfi, since his very valuable "baleetf, » ishes up in fine' hairs.' And thrq*. , * whale has a carcase worth than humans, as well as "a is quite precious. Fancy havusH« that a dentist would pay yoa fay? privilege of taking out, nnd tt ■ * testinal disorder, that, when tie® geon had operated on your avm would be saleable.for more thsaft cost of the operation. That is sag gris. They haven't struck mu<kto in the way of amborens at Soutt» not the sort of luck that ■ W Southerners, and some of.-B Norwegians have struck, but J* luckiest whale catch was years aeo in South Bay, wbcnr-|S got a 90ft whale with 4«W b-»lpen, or whale-bone worth,, ttWJ £800 a ton. The whalcre netted t» on that whale. " THE RENAISSANCE., «s The South Bay Maori who are waiting for the —havo a whale boat and a 1»<*"? boat in case of accidents, and S«jM look out on the cliff above the stt* to give warning of the apprwff * whales. Then he raises a '» and it is a case of the crow ft bo always "standing by") and going in chase. There uwditg look-out stations down the ooaes»"J raise a warning smoke, and a r0( you see from the coach as mJ» down a picturesquo part of "• road is stin called "Barney's; after an old time whaling od*n*S had his lair thereabouts, and wJ»««P* lies in a grave upon the crest .9 romantic bushy point above. ««»• too, give warning from their iw»»"| the waiting whnlors ashore whea vm see a "blow." When the i)oi!ed down—otherwise "tried our their whales. Mr Flowers ****%.% Wakatu round and the oil to her on a raft and brought down* Lytt*lton. Thpre is c good merWjg in Cliristchurch. It is used W WJ£ —it wiU penetrate into ™jj*&rr and by rope-makers. In ™Y*ZZd and binder twine-making it is »p • on as the rope is spun. SoA ? v fz a , it instead of cocoanut oil or fish oil. But in spite of oil trial uses, the more one quror critters whales arc '' aa £\tl» queerly lmraan in some rC more one feels a snrnk'ng w"* B ".™?!,*, lady wliales, when they come coast in tht> breeding 'oa-von, M' do, couldn't find sanctuary a> and be at least as safe from tbo .rs a hen pheasant is from For eminent authorities disturbance and killing of WIT, whales tbo fact that the world PF wlin'es arc being esterminnted- t_ Alas, like much else that 'MjJfJ in the world, the good old WO- 8 w either sex seems doomed.