now is that the men were stricken with awe. They remained in
port for several days in the belief that their enemy was
still on the rampage outside. Their deliverance had been
miraculous; and no doubt much thanksgiving, and much
petitioning for divine interposition, so that this visitor
from a sinister world might be spirited away to some other
locality, held their attention during the days that were
spent under cover of a safe harbour. There can be little
doubt that the cause of the fishers' frenzy was the quiet,
inoffensive bottle-nosed whale, leisurely prowling about the
Sound in search of a living, and, in fact, none other than
the one that my friend had supposed to be a reef. These
creatures rarely run amuck until the harpoon is thrust into
them. They usually roll about the sea in the most harmless
way. No doubt the sight of a huge creature in localities
unaccustomed to it creates an impression of dull alarm, and,
strange though it be, some minds are so constituted that
their superstitions and imaginations are always thirsting
after association with the nether regions.

A common belief among seamen is that if rats migrate from a
vessel that vessel is doomed; and many hardships have been
endured at times on account of this belief. I am inclined to
favour the idea that these creatures are just as tenacious
of life as human beings are; but to say they have keener
intuitive capacity than we is arrant nonsense. It is true
they do not like leaky ships any more than their crews do;
and they leave them for the same particular reasons as would
induce them to leave districts on shore. Scarcity of food
or comfort, or danger of attack, create their itinerant