Shining as some immeasurable mirror beneath the smiling face of heaven, the ocean lay in unrippled silence. It was in those south of the line in the Pacific, where weeks, aye months, often pass without the marginless blue level being by any wandering keel. Here, in almost perfect security from by man, the innumerable of the deep pursue their never-ending , doubtless enjoying to the full the brimming cup of life, without a weary moment, and with no of an unwanted old age.  
Now it fell on a day that the calm surface of that bright sea was broken by the sudden of a compact troop of whales from the inscrutable depths wherein they had been roaming and recruiting their gigantic energies upon the abundant molluscs, of and insatiable of maw, that, like creations of a diseased mind, far below the sunshine. The school consisted of seven cows and one bull, who was unique in appearance, for instead of being in colour the unrelieved sepia[2] common to his kind he was mottled with creamy white, making the immense oblong cube of his head look like a weather-worn monolith of Siena marble. Easeful as any Arabian khalif, he lolled supine upon the glittering folds of his couch, the welcoming wavelets his vast form with gentlest touch, and murmuring softly as by their united efforts they rocked him in rhythm with their lullaby. Around him his faithful harem—gentle timid creatures, no one of them a third of their lord’s huge bulk, but still in their proportions, being each some forty-five feet in length by thirty in girth. Unquestionably the of the flood, their great chief accepted in dignity their unremitting attentions, nor did their playful stir him in the least from his attitude of complete .
 
But while the busy seven were thus themselves in happy security there suddenly appeared among them a companion in the shape of a newly-born , elegantly dappled like his sire, the first-born son of the youngest mother in the group. It is not the habit of the cachalot to show that intense self-effacing devotion to its young which is evinced by other mammals, especially whales of the mysticetæ. Nevertheless, as the expectation of this latest addition to the family had been the reason of their visit to these quiet latitudes, his coming made a pleasant little of satisfaction vibrate throughout the group. Even the impenetrable of the head of the school was aroused into some faint tokens of interest in the new-comer, who clung leech-like to[3] his mother’s side, vigorously draining the enormous convexity of her of its flood of milk. So well did he thrive, that at the end of a week the youngster was able to hold his own with the school in a race, and competent also to remain under water quite as long as his mother. Then the stately leader signified to his that the time was now at hand when they must change their pleasant quarters. Food was less than it had been, which was but natural, remembering the necessarily made by such a company of monsters. Moreover, a life of continual ease and slothful luxury such as of late had been theirs was not only to the growth of a investiture of —barnacles, limpets, and weed—all over their bodies, but it completely unfitted them for the stern struggle awaiting them, when in their periodical progress round the world they should arrive on the borders of the fierce Antarctic Zone. And besides all these, had they forgotten that they were liable to meet with man! A sympathetic ran through every member of the school at that name, under the influence of which they all drew closer around their chief, their broad flukes restlessly from side to side and breathing inaudibly.
 
The outcome of the conference, , as human meetings of the kind are apt to be, by the commanding influence of one master will, was that on the next day they would depart for the south by easy stages through the “off-shore” waters of South America. All through that quiet night the[4] mighty creatures lay almost motionless on the surface, each the centre of a halo of dazzling emerald light, an occasional from their capacious lungs sliding through the primeval stillness like the sigh of some weary Titan. When at last the steel-blue above, with its diamond spangles, began to and glow with tremulous waves of lovely vari-coloured light flowing before the conquering squadrons of the sun, the whole troop, in open order about their guide, turned their heads to the south-west, an absolutely undeviating course for their destination by their sense of direction alone. Up sprang the flaming sun, a vast globe of fire that even at the horizon’s edge seemed to glow with strength. And right in the centre of his blazing disc appeared three tiny lines, recognisable even at that distance by the human eye as the masts of a ship whose was as yet below the apparent meeting-place of sea and sky. This lay fairly in the path of the advancing whales, who, unhappily for them, but feeble vision, and that only at its best straight behind them. So on they went in fashion, occasionally pausing for a descent in search of food, followed by an equally stately reappearance and resumption of their journey. Nearer and nearer they drew to the fatal area wherein they would become visible to the keen-eyed watchers at the mast-head of that lonely ship, still in perfect ignorance of any possible danger being at hand. Suddenly that mysterious sense owned by them, which is more than hearing, gave warning of approaching[5] . All lay still, though quivering through every sinew of their huge bodies with the of unknown enemies, their heads half raised from the sparkling sea-surface and their and flukes testing the of the mobile element like the diaphragm of a phonograph. Even the youngling clung to his mother’s side as if glued thereto under the influence of a terror that, while it effectually stilled his sportiveness, gave him no hint of what was coming. At the instance of the Head all sank silently and stone-like without any of those preliminary tail-flourishings and arching of the back that always distinguish the unworried whale from one that has received alarming news in the curious manner already spoken of. They remained below so long and went to so great a depth, that all except the huge leader were quite when they returned again to the necessary air, not only from privation of breath, but from the incalculable pressure of the superincumbent sea. So for a brief space they lay almost motionless, the valves of their spiracles deeply as they drew in great volumes of revivifying breath, and their great frames limply yielding to the heave of the . They had scarcely recovered their normal energy when into their midst rushed the destroyers, bringing with them the realisation of all those paralysing fears. First to be attacked was the noble bull, and once the first bewildering shock and smart had passed he maintained the reputation of his giant race. Every device that sagacity could conceive or fearlessness execute was tried by him, until the troubled[6] ocean around the combatants was all a-boil, and its so recently unsullied surface was littered with wreaths of blood-streaked . Whether from affection or for protection is uncertain, but the rest of the family did not attempt to flee. All seven of the cows kept close to their lord, often appearing as if they would shield him with their own bodies from the invisible death-darts that continually pierced him to the very seat of his vast . And this proved their own destruction, for their assailants, around them with the easy of birds, them at their leisure, not even needing to themselves by another individual. Instead, they their long lances upon the unresisting females, leaving the ocean monarch to his death. So successful were these tactics that before an hour had flown, while yet the violet of departing night lingered on the western edge of the sea, the last one of those mighty mammals had out the dregs of her life. Flushed with conquest and breathless from their great , the victors lolled restfully back in their boats, while all around them upon the incarnadined waters the massy bodies of their lay gently swaying to the roll of the silent swell.
 
Meanwhile, throughout that battle, what of the youngling’s fate? By almost a miracle, he had passed without . What manner of convulsion of Nature was in progress he could not know—he was blind and deaf and almost lifeless with terror. With all that wide ocean around him he[7] knew not whither to flee from this day of . Of all those who had been to him so brief a space ago the living embodiment of might, not one remained to help or shield him, none but were involved in this of blood. His kindred were cut off from him, he was overlooked by his enemies, and when he came to himself he was alone. A sudden impulse seized him, and under its influence he fled, fled as the bee flies, but without the homing instinct to guide him, southward through the calm blue silences of that sleeping ocean. On, on, he fled untiring, until behind him the emerald sheen of his passage through the now starlit waters broadened into a wide blaze of softest light. Before him lay the dark, its profound depths just manifested by the occasional transient gleam of a palpitating medusa or the swift flight of a terrified shark. When compelled to break the glassy surface for breath there was a sudden splash, and amid the deep sigh from his labouring lungs came the musical fall of the sparkling spray. When morning dawned again on his long objectless flight, unfailing instinct warned him of his approach to shallower waters, and with slackening speed he went on, through the tender sunlight of those dreamy depths, until he came to an enormous submarine forest, where the trees were fantastic abutments of living coral, the leaves and of dull-hued fucus or algæ, the blossoms of orchid-like sea-anemones or zoophytes, and the birds were , gliding fish, whose myriad splendid blazed like jewels.
 
Here, surely, he might be at peace and find some[8] for his loneliness, some suitable food to replace that which he had hitherto always found awaiting him, and now would find nevermore. Moving gently through the interminably intricate avenues of this submarine world of stillness and beauty, his small lower hanging down as usual, he found abundant store of sapid molluscs that glided down his gullet with a pleasant , and were soon followed by a sense of hunger satisfied. When he rose to spout he was in the midst of a weltering of broken water, where the majestic swell and roared in wrath around the hindering peaks of a great reef—a group of islands in the making. Here, at any rate, he was safe, for no land was in sight whence might come a band of his , while into that network of jagged rocks no would ever dare to venture. After a few days of placid of this secure existence he began to feel courage and independence, although still pining for the companionship of his kind. Thus he might have gone on for long, but that an adventure befell him which raised him at once to his rightful position among the sea-folk. During his through the and of this subaqueous paradise he had once or twice noticed between two stupendous columns of coral a black space where the water was apparently of depth. Curiosity, one of the strongest influences actuating the creation, him to investigate this , but something, he knew not what, probably inherited caution, had hitherto held him back. At last, having met with no creature[9] nearly his own size, and grown bold by reason of plenteous food, he became venturesome, and made for that gloomy abyss, upon searching its . Boldly he swept between the immense bastions that guarded it, and with a swift upward thrust of his broad horizontal tail went headlong down, down, down. Presently he saw amidst the outer darkness a web of palely gleaming lines changing their patterns and extending over an area of a thousand square yards. They centred upon a dull ghastly glare that was motionless, formless, indescribable. In its midst there was a blackness deeper, if possible, than that of the surrounding pit. Suddenly all that wrapped him round, each clutching fastening upon him with innumerable mouths as if to him all over at once. With a new and even pleasant sensation thrilling along his the young leviathan himself forward at that midmost gap, his powerful clashing and his whole frame upstrung with nervous energy. Right through the musky mass of that unthinkable chimæra he his way, not in the least the , sucking coils about him, and covering every inch of his body. Absolute silence as the great fight went on. Its inequality was curiously abnormal. For while the vast bulk of the mollusc completely the comparatively size of the young cachalot, there was on the side of the latter all the innate superiority of the vertebrate carnivorous mammal with instincts transmitted[10] unimpaired through a thousand generations of ocean . Gradually the grip of those clinging relaxed as he felt the succulent gelatinousness divide, and with a bound he from that befouled gloom into the light and loveliness of the upper air. Behind him trailed long fragments, disjecta membra of his late , and upon these, after filling his lungs again and again with the keen pure air of heaven, he feasted grandly.
 
But in spite of the new inspiring sense of conscious might and ability to do even as his had done, his loneliness was heavy upon him. For, like all mammals, the cachalot loves the fellowship of his during the days of his strength; and only when advancing age renders him unable to hold his own against jealous rivals, or makes him a in the united chase, does he the school and wander solitary and about the infinite of his limitless . And so, surrounded by the abundant evidences of his prowess, the young giant , while a hungry host of sharks, like jackals at the lion’s kill, came prowling up out of the surrounding silence, and with cries of delight the hovering bird-folk gathered in to take of his enormous spoil. Unheeding the accumulating multitudes, who gave him ample room and enough, and full of flesh, he lay almost motionless, when suddenly that subtle sense which, to the faintest vibrations of the mobile sea, kept him warned, informed him that some more than ordinary was in progress not many miles away. Instantly every sinew set , every nerve with[11] receptivity, while, quivering like some fucus in a tide rip, his broad tail swayed silently to and fro, but so easily as not to stir his body from its attitude of intense expectation. A gannet swept over him close down, startling him so that with one fierce lunge of his flukes he sprang forward twenty yards; but recovering himself he paused again, though the still bore him noiselessly ahead, the soothing wash of the waves gently around his blunt bow. Shortly after, to his unbounded joy, a noble company of his own folk hove in sight, two score of them in goodliest array. They glided around him in curves, wonderingly him by his small body with , nose, and tail, and puzzled beyond measure as to how so young a fellow-citizen came to be inhabiting these vast wastes alone. His tale was soon told, for the whale-people waste no interchange of ideas, and the company solemnly received him into their midst as a comrade who had well earned the right to be one of their band by providing for them so great a feast. Swiftly the spoil of that gigantic mollusc was rescued from the marauding sharks, and ; and thorough was the subsequent search among those deep-lying darknesses for any other monsters of the same breed that might lie brooding in their depths. None were to be found, although for two days and nights the questing leviathans pursued their keen . When there remained no longer a cave unfathomed or a unexplored, the leader of the school, a huge black bull of unrivalled fame, gave the signal for departure, and away they went in double columns, line ahead, due south, their splendid chief about a cable’s length in advance. The happy youngster, no longer astray from his kind, about the school in unrestrained delight at the rising tide of life that surged tumultuously through his vigorous frame. Ah; it was so good to be alive, glorious to speed, with body bending bow-wise, and broad fan-like flukes the brilliant waves behind him, to exert all the power he felt in one mad upward rush until out into the sunlight high through the warm air he sprang, a living embodiment of force, and fell with a crash back into the welcoming bosom of his native deep. The patriarch of the school looked on these youthful freaks indulgently, until, fired by the sight of his young follower’s energy, he too put all his incredible strength, launching his hundred tons or so of solid weight clear of the embracing sea, and returning to it again with a shock as of some Polyphemus-hurled mountain.
 
Thus our grew and waxed great. Together, without of any kind, these lords of the flood skirted the southern slopes of the globe. In security they ranged the stormy seas from Kerguelen to Horn, from the Falklands to Table Bay. Up through the scent-laden straits between Madagascar and Mozambique, loitering along the burning shores of Zanzibar and Pemba, with the around the lonely Seychelles and idling away the pleasant north-east in the Arabian Sea. By the Bab-el-Mandeb they entered the Red Sea, their majestic array scaring the fishermen at[13] their lonely labour along the reef-besprinkled thereof, remote from the straight-ruled track down its centre along which the unwearied slaves of the West, the great , thrust their undeviating way. Here, in richest abundance, they found their favourite food, of many kinds, although none so large as those haunting the middle depths of the outer ocean. And threading the deep channels between the reefs great shoals of delicately flavoured fish, by the pearly whitenesses of those gaping throats, rushed fearlessly down them to oblivion. So quiet were these haunts, so free from even the remotest chance of interference by man, their only enemy, that they remained for many months, even well up the of Akaba, that sea of sleep whose waters even now retain the same they enjoyed when their shores were the cradle of mankind.
 
But now a time was fast approaching when our hero must needs meet his compeers in battle, if haply he might his claim to be a leader in his turn. For such is the custom of the cachalot. The young bulls each seek to form a harem among the younger cows of the school, and having done so, they break off from the main band and pursue their own independent way. This crisis in the career of the orphan had been imminent for some time, but now, in these untroubled seas, it could no longer be delayed. Already several preliminary skirmishes had taken place with no definite results, and at last, one morning when the sea was like oil for smoothness, and blazing like gold under the fervent glare of the sun, two out of the four young bulls attacked the orphan at once. All around lay the expectant brides ready to welcome the , while in solitary state the mighty leader held , doubtless on the coming time when a than he should arise and drive him from his proud position into lifelong exile. Straight for our hero’s massive head came his rivals, charging along the surface like bluff-bowed . But as they upon him he also charged to meet them, settling slightly at the same time. Whether by accident or design I know not, but certainly the consequence of this move was that instead of their striking him they met one another over his back, the shock of their impact throwing their great heads out of the sea with a dull boom that might have been heard for a mile. Swiftly and the orphan turned head over flukes, rising on his back and clutching the nearest of his opponents by his under-jaw. The fury of that assault was so great that the attacked one’s jaw was sideways, until it remained at right angles to his body, leaving him for the rest of his life sorely in even the getting of food, but of ever again giving battle to one of his own species. Then rushing towards the other aggressor the warrior his body in the sea, and his flukes so upon his that the noise of those tremendous blows for leagues over the calm sea, while around the combatants the troubled waters were into and[15] islets of snowy foam. Very soon was the battle over. Disheartened, sick, and exhausted, the disabled rival essayed to escape, settling stone-like until he lay like some sunken on the boulder-bestrewn sea-bed a hundred down. Slowly, but full of triumph, the conqueror returned to the waiting school and, selecting six of the submissive cows, led them away without any attempt at on the part of the other two young bulls who had not joined in the .
 
In stately march the new family travelled southward out of the Red Sea, along the Somali Coast, past the frowning cliffs of Sokotra, and crossing the Arabian Sea, skirted at their ease the pleasant Malabar . Unerring instinct guided them across the Indian Ocean and through the Sunda Straits, until amid the intricacies of Celebes they ended their journey for a season. Here, with richest food in abundance, among undisturbed reef-beds swept by constantly changing currents, where they might their irritated skins clean from the many parasites they had accumulated during their long Red Sea , they remained for several seasons. Then, suddenly, as usually come, they were attacked by a whaler as they were calmly coasting along Timor. But never till their dying day did those whale-fishers forget that fight. True, they secured two half-grown cows, but at what a cost to themselves! For the young leader, now in the full flush of vigorous life, seemed not only to have inherited the fighting instincts of his ancestors, but also to possess a fund of wily ferocity that made him a truly terrible foe. No sooner did he feel the first keen thrust of the than, instead of his strength for by a series of aimless flounderings, he rolled his huge bulk swiftly towards his aggressors, who were busily engaged in clearing their boat of the hampering sail, and perforce helpless for a time. Right down upon them came the writhing mass of living flesh, overwhelming them as completely as if they had suddenly fallen under Niagara. From out of that roaring vortex only two of the six men forming the boat’s crew emerged alive, poor fragments of humanity tossing like chips upon the sea. Then changing his tactics, the cachalot glided stealthily about just beneath the surface, feeling with his sensitive flukes for anything still remaining afloat upon which to his newly aroused thirst for . As often as he touched a floating portion of the shattered boat, up flew his mighty flukes in a moment, and, with a reflex blow that would have stove in the side of a ship, he smote it into still smaller splinters. This attention to his first set of enemies saved the other boats from destruction, for they, using all expedition, managed to the two cows they had , and when they returned to the scene of disaster, the bull, unable to find anything more to destroy, had departed with the remnant of his family, and they saw him no more. Gloomily they traversed the battle-field until they found the two exhausted just feebly clinging to a couple of , and with them mournfully their ship.
 
Meanwhile the triumphant bull was slowly making his way , sorely irritated by the harpoon[17] which was buried deep in his shoulders, and wondering what the hundreds of fathoms of trailing rope behind him could be. At last coming to a well-known reef he managed to get the line around some of its coral pillars, and a effort on his part tore out the barbed weapon, leaving in its place a rent in his blubber four feet long. Such a trifle as that, a superficial scratch, gave him little trouble, and with the wonderful recuperative power possessed by all the sea-folk the ugly tear was completely healed in a few days. Henceforth he was to be reckoned among the most dangerous of all enemies to any of mankind daring to attack him, for he knew his power. This the whalemen found to their cost. Within the next few years his fame had spread from Cape to Chelyushkin, and wherever two whaleships met for a spell of “gamming,” his prowess was sure to be an absorbing topic of conversation. In fact, he became the terror of the passages of Malaysia, and though often attacked always managed to make good his escape, as well as to leave behind him some direful to his cunning. At last he fell in with a ship off Palawan, whose crew were justly reputed to be the smartest whale-fishers from “Down East.” Two of her boats attacked him one lovely evening just before sunset, but the iron drew. Immediately he felt the wound he dived , but describing a complete circle beneath the boat he rose again, striking her almost amidships with the front of his head. This, of course, hurled the crew everywhere, besides shattering the boat. But reversing himself again on the instant, he those awful flukes in the air, bringing them down upon the helpless men and crushing three of them into dead pieces. Apparently satisfied, he disappeared in the darkness.
 
When the extent of the disaster became known on board the ship, the skipper was speechless with rage and grief, for the mate who had been killed was his brother, and very dear to him. And he swore that if it cost him a season’s work and the loss of his ship, he would that man-killing whale. From that day he cruised about those narrow seas offering large rewards to any of his men who should first sight his enemy again. Several weeks went by, during which not a solitary spout was seen, until one morning in Banda Strait the skipper himself “raised” a whale close in to the western verge of the island. Instantly all hands were alert, hoping against hope that this might prove to be their long-sought foe at last. Soon the welcome news came from aloft that it was a sperm whale, and an hour later two boats left the ship, the foremost of them commanded by the skipper. With him he took four small barrels tightly bunged, and an extra supply of bomb-lances, in the use of which he was an acknowledged expert. As they drew near the unconscious leviathan they scarcely dared breathe, and, their oars carefully peaked, they propelled the boats by paddles as silently as the gliding approach of a shark. ! fast; first iron. “Starn all, men! it’s him, d—n him, ’n I’ll him ’r he shall me.” Backward flew the boat, not a second too soon, for with that superhuman cunning expected of him, the terrible monster had round and was rushing straight for them. The men pulled for dear life, the steersman swinging the boat round as if she were on a , while the skipper pitched over the first of his barrels. Out flashed the flukes, and before that tremendous blow the buoyant barrico spun through the air like a football. The skipper’s eyes flashed with delight at the success of his , and over went another decoy. This seemed to puzzle the whale, but it did not hinder him, and he seemed to keep heading towards the boat, thus exposing only his invulnerable head. The skipper, however, had no idea of rashly risking himself, so heaving over his remaining barrel he kept well clear of the furious animal’s rushes, knowing well that the waiting game was the best. All through that bright day the great battle raged. Many were the hair-breadth escapes of the men, but the skipper never lost his cool, calculating attitude. Finally the now exhausted leviathan “sounded” in reality, remaining down for half-an-hour. When he reappeared, he was so in his movements that the skipper shouted, “Naow, boys, in on him! he’s our whale.” Forward the beautiful craft under the practised sweep of the six oars, and as soon as she was within range the skipper fired his first bomb. It reached the whale, but, buried in the flesh, its explosion was not disabling. Still it did not spur the huge creature into activity, for at last his strength had failed him. Another rush in and another bomb, this time taking effect just the starboard fin. There was a accession of energy as the wound caused by the bursting iron tube among the monster’s viscera set all his masses of muscle a-quiver. But this was short-lived. And as a third bomb was fired a of blood from the whale’s spiracle, a few fierce convulsions distorted his enormous frame, and that ocean monarch passed peacefully into the passiveness of death.
 
When they got the great carcass alongside, they found in the blubber no fewer than fourteen , besides sundry fragments of exploded bombs, each bearing mute but testimony to the warlike career of the Titan who began his career as an orphan.