Pelorus Jack.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8199, 28 May 1906, Page 7

Pelorus Jack.

Few denizens of the ocean have become so widely known as Pelorus Jack. Already his fame has reached the Mother Country, where his family history has been liunted up. Becently I saw m print that he is decended from a shark and a whale, but which was the paternal or the maternal ancestor — the iish or the mammal—was not stated. Though one of the oldest residents of the j/elorus district I am not. personally acquainted with our marine celebrity, but haying heard much and read much about him, I may venture a few remarks on his habits. To his habit of playing around steamers passing the .mouth of the Pelorus Sound, Pelorus Jack owes Jiis name and his notoriety. The offal thrown overboard from the steaiiiers is generally supposed to be the cause of Jack's long-continued practice. To this "explanation I will return later on. Coming out from Home piore than half a century ago, I saw for the firet time what the sailors called porpoises. Even now I can recall the pleasure it gave me watching them as they leaped and darted round the bows of the vessel, plunging through the water before a stiff breeze, and I can also recollect how disappointed I was when time: after time the sailors ran forward with a harpoon, but failed to get one on board. Close to the entrance of the Dunedin harbour one was, successfully harpooned, but immediately after its capture we narrowly escaped being wrecked on the rocks below the flagstaff. In • preparing for the worst the long coveted prize was thrown overboard without even a post mortem. As well as I can recollect, ic was about 15 feet long and from 4 to 5 feet in girth in the thickest place—dimensions that correspond better with the grampus than with the much smaller porpoise. The coming of a shoal of porpoises round our ship was a little god send, breaking the monotony of our long, tedious voyage and furnishing something to talk abou\ What brought tbo. porpoises was a question X never heatd mooted, certainty it was not for what they picked up, 'the harpoon already mentioned being the only thing that was thrown overboard for their benefit. For twenty-five years ] had annually to visit many .places nlon" the shores of the Pelorus and Oueen Charlotte Sounds. This afford-

Ed - me ample opportunities of observing .. tihe Itab'tts „of the small cetaceans that frequent these landlocked waters. Time' out of number 1 have a6en them playin<' " round the boats and launches in which I travelled, exactly as the so-called porpoises played round the vessel I came out in, when, she was far from any land. Judging by the differences in size three species at least indulged in this curious amusement, for they have apparently no other object. That these lively animals can see a boat a long war off. and that they make directly to it is, I think, beyond doubt. Mr P. McMahon, a most reliable authority, told me that shortly after settling in Kenepnri, he started alone for Havelock,: but had not gone far before a shoal .of i porpoises came leaping, swimming round and diving under his boat. Fearing he might be upset and being unable to swim, he went ashore and waited until he thought the coast was clear; but he had not proceeded more than a couple of miles after resuming his journey when his tormentors were again round him. Three times he landed, but to no purpose. It was only when he reached the shallow water above Black Point that he lost his lively escort. Again and again I have I heard the men with whom I was boating call out Here they come," pointing at the same time to some place a mile or two astern ; and sure enough it was not many minutes before we were surrounded by a shoal of these strange animals, Though I have made repeated enquiries, I have never heard of a boat being injured by them. On one occasion, going out alone to 'fish at Nydia Bay, when in the centre of a shoal, my boat gave a sudden lurch, as if something had touched against the keel, but it might have been the disturbance of the water a's one of the large animals dived under that made the boat rock. I kept steadily on and was soon alone, ' for they do not remain very long round boats or vessels. Returning now to Pelorus Jack, it can be seen that in playing round the passing steamers he only doe 3 after the manner of his kind. That he may have acquired a taste for the scraps thrown overboard is quite probable, but the habit that brought him into notice preceded the taste. All the small cetaceans with which I am acquainted are gregarious and no madic. Pelorus Jack appears to be a solitary animal, and to have remained in the same place for several years. Are these individual peculiarities? or are they the habits of the species to which he has been referred'?— Contributed to Dannevirke Advocate by Joshua Rutland.