e of them,
were the most to be dreaded of all the whale's enemies. It was at
present too far off for her to take alarm, but she lay watching the
incomprehensible monster so sharply that she almost forgot to blow.
Presently she saw it crawl up quite close to the unsuspecting shape of
one of her kinsmen. A spiteful flame leapt from its head. Then a
sharp thunder came rapping across the waves, and she saw her giant
kinsman hurl himself clear into the air. He fell back with a terrific
splash, which set the monster rolling, and, for perhaps a minute, his
struggles lashed the sea into foam. Then he lay still, and soon she
saw him drawn slowly up till he clung close to the monster's side.
This unheard-of action filled her with a terror that was quite
sickening. Clutching her calf tremblingly under her fin she plunged
once more into the deep, and, traveling as fast as possible for the
little one, at a depth of perhaps two hundred feet, she headed for
another feeding ground where she trusted that the monster might not
follow.

"When she came again to the surface, fifteen minutes later, the monster
and all her spouting kinsfolk were out of sight, hidden behind a
mile-long mountain of blue ice-berg. But she was not satisfied.
Remaining up less than two minutes, to give the calf time for breath,
she hurriedly plunged again and continued her journey. When this
manoeuver had been repeated half a dozen times she began to feel more
at ease. At last she came to a halt, and lay rocking in the seas just
off the mouth of a spacious rock-rimmed bay.

"Here, as luck would have it, she found herself in the midst of the
food which she loved best. The leaden green of the swells was all
flushed and stained with pale pink. This unusual color was caused by
hordes of tiny, shrimplike creatures--distant cousins of those which
you like so well in a salad. The whale preferred them in the form of
soup, so she went sailing slowly through them with her cavernous mouth
very wide open. Every now and then she would shut her jaws and give
two or three great gulps, and her little eyes, away back at the base of
her skull, would almost twinkle with satisfaction.

"But, as it appeared, she was not the only one that liked shrimps. The
air was full of wings and screams, where gulls, gannets, and skuas
swooped and splashed, quarrelling because they got in one another's way
at the feast. Also, here and there a heavy, sucking swirl on the
smooth sl