BIG GAME AT SEA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2368, 20 July 1899, Page 55

BIG GAME AT SEA.

(Frank T. Bullen, in the Sunday Daily

Telegraph.)

Sportsmen of ample means and unlimited leisure often deplore the shrinkage winch goes on at an ever-accelerating rate of such free hunting grounds as still remain. Owing to the wonderful facilities for travel allied to- increased wealth , they foresee, not, perhaps, the extinction of the great animals which alone they consider worthy of their high prowess, but such close preservation of them, in the' near future that the free delight of the hunter will, surely disappear. Therefoi-e it may be considered opportune to point out from the vantag* ground of personal experience >>enie a&pects of sport at sea, which will certainly not suffer by comparison ' with any hunting on land, no matter from what point we regard it. It will readily be conceded that one of the chief drawbacks to the full enjoyment of sport in wild lands is the large amount of personal suffering entailed upon the hunters by evil climates and transport difficulties

The best type of vessel for a sporting cruise at sea is what is known to seamen as a " barquentine," a vessel,, that is to say, of some 250 tons register, with three masts, square-rigged at the fore — after the style of the well-known Sunbeam. In her davits she should carry three whaleboats, such as the Americans of New Bedford or Rhode Island know so well how to build, the handsomest and most seaworthy of all boats ever built. . . The seeker after big sea game should attack the rorqual if he would see sport indeed. For this agile monster -has such a reputation for almost supernatural cunning that even if he were as valuable as he really is valueless commercially, it is highly doubtful if he would ever be molested. As it is, all the tribe are chartered libertines, since no whaleman is likely to risk the loss of a boat's gear for the barren honour of conquest. And not only so, but the rorquals, whether "fin-back," "sulphur-bottom," or " blue-back," as well as the " hump-back "' and grampus, make it a point of honour to sink when dead, unlike the " cachalot " or " Bowhead," who float awash at first, but ever more buoyantly as the progress of decay within the immense abdominal cavity generates an accumulating volume of gas. Any old whaleman would evolve in the interests of sport no end of dodges for dealing with the wily rorqual, such as a collection of strongly attached bladder* affixed to the line to stay his downward rush, short but broad-barbed harpoons, to get a better hold upon the thin coating of blubber, etc. « In this kind of whaling there is quite sufficient danger to make the sport exciting in the highest degree. Not, .however, from the attack of the animal hunted, but because his evolutions in the effort to escape are so marvellously vivacious that only the most expert and cool-headed boatsmanship can prevent a sudden severance of the nexus between boat and crew. A splendid day's sport can be obtained with a school of blackfish. Although seldom exceeding a ton and a half in weight, these small whales are quite vigorous enough to make the chase of them as lively an episode as the most enthusiastic hunter could wish, especially if two or even three are harpooned one after the other on a single line, as the whalers' custom is. The sensation of being harnessed as it were to a trio of monsters, each about 25ft long and Bft in girth, every one anxious to flee in a different direction at the highest speed he can muster, and in their united gambols making the sea, boil like a pot, is one that, once experienced, is never likely to be forgotten. The mere memory of that mad frolic over the heaving bosom of the bright sea makes the blood leap to the face, makes the nerves twitch, and the heart long to be away from the placid round of everyday life upon the bright free wave again. 'Even a school of porpoises, in default of nobler game, can furnish a lively hour or two, especially if they be of a fair size, say up to three or four hundredweight each. But of a truth there need be no fear of a lack of game. The swift passage from port to port made by passenger vessels is apt to leave the voyager with the impression that the sea i* a barren waste, but such an idea is wholly falaa. Even the saUine ships,

bound though, they may do to make th* shortest possible time between ports, are compelled "by failure of wind to see enough of the every-day , life of the se'a-populatjon to know better than that, and .whoso. gives himself up to the glamour of sea-study, making no haste to rush from place' to place, but leisurely loitering along the wide , plains of ocean, shall find each day a new world unfoldhig itself before his astonished • eyes, a world of marvels, infinitely small* ' " as well as wondrous great— from the thousand and one miracles that go to make ,-un - the ."Plankton" to the antediluvian whale. Fishing in its more heroic phases is obtainable- in' deep-sea .cruising as nowhere else. , .