J. J. Bell

“ At last, on a hot afternoon, in the neighbourhood of the Azores, a magnificent young bull, whose rare and curious piebald hide may or may not have had some extra attraction for the modest little cows—they seldom grow beyond forty feet—subjected his lord to repeated and disrespectful jostlings which could mean only one thing. ”

“ No other land was visible, and yonder ocean peak was Rockall, a familiar mark for some trawlers, the whalers just mentioned, and ships plying between Scandinavia and America. A hundred and fifty miles from the nearest habitation of man, St. Kilda, this desolate, unlighted reef, partly sunken, has surely caused many more Atlantic tragedies than can be recorded in its name. ”

“ OUR FRIEND THE CACHALOT In Southern seas he was born, grew to his mighty maturity, and for many a year lorded it over a company of females and young bulls. Sixty feet in length, he weighed in his prime over eighty tons. He was father of many children, but they knew him only as lord and leader, and it was ordained that as time went on certain of them should rise up against him, and that one of them, ultimately, should conquer and depose him. ”

“ No cow cachalot has ever been seen in these waters. Some whalemen declare that the solitary cachalot is invariably vicious; others that he is as inoffensive as any of the great whales. Beholding our friend in that peaceful period of repletion and rest, you would have been disposed to accept the latter statement. ”