WONDERS OF THE WILD

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1031, 21 January 1911, Page 8

WONDERS OF THE WILD

THE WOLF OF.THE OCEAN. ORCA, THE KILLER-WHALE, (BT WILL Lawson.) n . (All Kiglits Reserved.) 1, A fisherman, one of a party who lia 11 set warehou .and butterfish nets ovei ] niglit, and were camped in the -littl y. .whare on the.beach, awoke in'the dar ! e of dawn and cursed. : "Hear that damn fish?" - • r , A comrade, half-asleep, agreed in th a soft 'Neapolitan tongue. ' "Barking like tho dog that he is." Through ihe clear morning air cam the sound of a short, whistling-bark tha .[ told of a "killer" smashing the nets an d. taking' tho captured fish. d ' Mo'ro than a week ago, when the crc )- of fishermen had made, canjp here, ther had been prospects of. good catches- Bn d Orca, the Killer, Wolf of the Ocean, ha decreed otherwise. In tho heat of wonderful summer day, when the Strai g shimmered and swung to the slow puis: [. tions of the swell,, he: had come inshor j to bask in the warmth of the shallows And as he blew the/spent air from hi t lungs in a short bark, and sank agair it he came face to face'with a great goggk eyed moki that stared unwinking at th ',voracious Killer. Orca did not wait t investigate the reasons that led to sue! 9 Strange behaviour. He opened his hug (1 mouth and engulfed.,the. fish. AVhat.h o .took, no doubt, to be a web of very stron i. seaweed rather retarded,the operation o 3 .swallowing, but a snap of his well-armei 0 jaws quickly removed the annoyancc d 'Further., investigation revealed ' a liu Q der of fish to be had- for the ?al s ing, schnapper," Koman-nosed warehou 1 and big-eyed moki. To right ail . left in a sweeping .curvo tho net lnm in mid-water. It' in the course of hi !" progress and mesh intervened; Orca. th " Killer simply went straight through it i- Sometimes, he 'passed beneath it. Bu s everytime. lie'dived he took heavy toll'o 1, ..the fishermen's harvest. They, had. gooi if cause to 'hate'the sight of his' high .tri angulfir dorsal fin. arid the sound of hi 0 .blowing. .' i ■ One ofr them wearied of his depreda .tions, got a rifle,' and when the-Killer-al lowed his twenty feet-of bulk to rise unti 11 the fin, eye,:and blow-hole emerged, infr the sunshine,-the fisherman ..took a quie! - shot at ; him." ■ The man tired from th 3, -boat, ;and aimed' at' the -whiter-patch be a hindtho'eye .of Orca,. who 1 sank as "h s : - .usually; did,. .'only ..to rise agaii f right alongside the boat, ' whicl ho ' humped' slightly. The vapour-fron 3 the blow-hole' blew; into ' the'' men'; 0 faces-and the eye of tho beast-seemed. t< J Hash anger. Plainly,' he was; not .afraii 3 of a boat despite tho scar behind th - . black fin where the bullet -had struck am 1 grazed. The fishermen were glad wliei - they saw him break-water again a'hun - dred yards away, for they knew the repu 3 tation .of Orca . the Killer—afraid of- noth 3 ing in all God's seas, and .voracious!; '■ cruel-in tho-satisfaction of his hunger o: the, resentment of any attack. They tool their nets and sought another ' fishinj ground. Orqa tho Killer, being'joined b; his mate, whose domestic alfairs . hat ' kept - her from - his- neighbourhood, the; ! went foraging together. . In the niornini i- light the seas, .sparkled, ..tho skies'.weri blue,, and filled with tho joy ,of ..beinj ,- alive, Topoupou the Porpoise, and a grea r school bf his-fellows.came gambolling aii.t '.racing; near yhcre the.;killers", lurked /i'opoupou is .to all appearance the-ver; ' ■ epitome of. speed and. clean-lined, build . a ; steamer but ho can out'pacp, ' .While Orca. and-his kind are almost a: ;stout as they ,are ; -long, their flipper; r. are broadband-clumsy-looking. But w'hei t they saw Topoupou, : the killers ' becamt i living, leaping shadow's.in the green.ligKi : ;of the- uuder-tide. -..The speed of Tapoiipoi: | was nothing-to theirs, though/terror. 1 . -wings to the porpoise..: Instead, of diving ' and leaping,, the.porpoise .raced, along half immersed and' lashing the 'sea. to J foam. The sound of their' panic was -. dike the roar, of breakers on' rocks.---It was impossible, to' distaace 1 the killers; I- 'the raco ( .was an endurance'testfor- the i, killers .could." not' eat;'the . whole sthool, and the .laggards, or weaklings lost'their ; lives. lii a few minutes the killers were r gorged each with some half-a-dozen porpoises, and the' school had settled down again to their gambolling®. Orca tho Killer and his mate, in thbir'patrol of the seas .never went far' from a certain 1 bay, where a whaling-station -was; and . tho sea they searched for' food was 'in the track that is followed by Tohora,the Right "Whalo 'of. .the"Southern Seas, :, in •• 'iis jdurneyings north." There was v a'ticit i understanding between the men' and-the ' killers, which, showed that the beasts had intelligence. ' The • greatest delicacy ■ the .- killer, seeks is wjhale-tongue,-any whale's, ; but preferably the. tongue'of Tohora. 'To get this, they seize tho slow-moving, h'elp- • less monster by- the lip of his lower-jaw,' one at'each side, ana hang ' on till, in exhaustion. Toliora becomes inert, arid his jaw falls'open. Then thd killers go into his mouth and eat his; tongue. Often the killers,are helped'bj;'big Thresher the Shark, who leaps'into "tho air'and (logs I'ohora with his body and cruel tail. But ' Orca and; his mate had learned that the ■whalemen who came in boats made the getting of the tongue' much easier, and • at the.whaling station, when ttie whale was being cut lip, there was good feeding for. many days. ' ' ' .; ■ So when Tohora and his cows came, one morning, through the strait, blowing their .'twin-columiis of hot, spent air into ■ the cool'atmosphere, Orca the Killer : a'nd : ' h is inse won't; gladly to meet them.-' As soon as the .Whales ■ felt their'presence they sounded. But the killers followed 'the direction which stupid Tohora and his kind always, followed,. and wero soonamong the school when they, came to the surface again. And though tho "whales sounded again and again, always the killers continued to edge them inshore towards the whaling station. Soon they heard the boats coming. Tho killers settled to await .the men.- • Their hearts were set upon great Tohora, but they, knew they must not touch him till the boats had slain him, Then an enormous form, sinuous and. many-finned .swam up. . It was Ihrtsher the, Shark'eager for murder. Now these, killers had not- had tho shark to aid their, killingfor-a long time mid his coming,upset them. They.,rushSi T °h°ra and seized his lips while J e i r the Shark • leaped abovo him and flogged him'till his great mass quivered. The cows sounded and moved away. ; with the scattered boats after them, Tohora,; in. his agony,v flogged the sea -with his powerful tail * till the air vibrated with tho thunder of-it. .And a : boat-was. rowing towards tho struggling mass as hard as the men could lay to the oars. Eight alongside the whale it swept, the crow ready to back away as soon as the harpoon went", home. The-harpooner raised his long-sjianked weapon to tho-barbed head of which the. tough line, was made fast. Ho flung it arid at that moment Thresher .the Shark leaped a^ain..to whip Tohora "to submission. The harpoon glanced against tho shark, missed Tohora, and struck'Orca the Killer in the cheek, thohead entering . his moutlu Then thero was wild uproar. Tohora freed .from the fiends that .had held him fast,, sounded weakly aiid was gone. OrcaV mate and the snark disappeared too. But Orca the Killer chargcd the boat, .the. ;cnly object he . could see. The m.en-cut the line, backed away, and strove to escape the fierce brute. "With teeth set in ,the boat's keel tho. Killer wrenched tho craft over,. spilling .her crew out. The effort toro the barb from his jaws and with tho easing of the terriblo pain he realised that this was no whale he was attacking.- Confused and beaten he turn,cd away while tho whalemen, uttering fearful words, gathered themselves and their gear together again and joined in the hunt after Ine cows. Orca the .Killer was sick. His mato forsook Ji-im. .His strength left him and with his .strength his spred. Topoupou easily escapcd him." Upokohue the cowfish could live better than he. lie went 'back to the. placo where tho goggle-eyed inoki had stared at him face to face. For a few days lie rifled tho nets of the fishermen. But when the men saw ho had come to stay, they went away again. And Ovca-thc Killer became,desperate. Passing a harbour-mouth -ho found a blood taint iii tho water which ho followed till he camo.to n place in •still watcc whei-Q fi?h and sea-birds were gathered about ithc . offal of animals.. And Orca found the flavour not .unlike that of the ofVal of whales and tho food } served him for a time. His high, wide I

showed above water as ha lolled along, gorging himself. Men thought'it the fin of a groat shark, or •.took-hiiu for a porpoise or cowfish." But Topoupou and Upokohue aro clean feeders, touching nothing that is not alive and free. Only Orca the Killer, .of-all the animals of the sea, feeds on dead or captive things and he is the wolf of the ocean. But Orca did not like tho taste of the water when the rain eamc'from the hills, and, becoming strong, ho returned to his wild life again with another mate, to help him in-his hunting in the seas.'