PELORUS JACK.

Otago Witness, Issue 2815, 26 February 1908, Page 88

PELORUS JACK.

By Will Lawson.

A TALE OF A WHITE WHALE, r

■* fc in the spring of the year, ml latitude 60 south, when the sun-dogs were growing paler -with the warm approach! of the true sun and the beams of th« Aurora were losing their brilliance, thatf Fetorus Jack found himself strayed fromf the school of narwhals to which he x and his mother belonged. This school disported themselves in summer in the waters of a large inland sea in Antarctica, and i» the winter always clustered on the verge of the pack-ice and under the solid dvift we. In the latter they made blow-holee, as the seals do. These narwhals wet* w ghastly white in colour, like their cousins of the Arctic regions — white aa ghosts;— <■ as a matter of fact, the name "narwhal" means " corpse-fish." But unlike the northern fish, the males of this, species had no long titraight ivoTy tusk, and they ■were of ap even shyer disposition than the northern narwhal of the Arctic seas, which have Tarely been seen further south than 65 degrees, though once/ in 1648, one was seen in the Firth of Forth *ndf another at Weesdale Sound in Shetland in 1806. But Pelorous Jack's' peopleclung always to the drift ice, and never, went beyond the sound of the grinding* rolling floes. ' j When Pelorus Jack first missed his comrades there had been, a great upheaval! of tiie breaking ice-packs, and search aa he would no trace of them rewarded his efforts. So he lay still and listened, aa whales do, with every nerve in his body,for the vibrations of sound which, would direct him to the familiar ice-packs. And presently he sensed the ice. He found Jt; was all around him. But it was different/ ice from what he was accustomed to. He tried to sound beneath it, and, after ai prolonged dive, came to the surface again* breathless. He soon found that be could) not escape, and contented himself witb swimming round the prison formed by lha junction of two icebergs, the side of one of these being a deep, wide bay. Pelorus Jack went with the drifting berc further and further north. Before long he found! an opening in the melting ice, and made his escape to the oven sea. Yet this was » 6trange, new world to him, and he stiU clung to_the ice for very companionship. The spring was a cold on.*, bo the water was not uncomfortably warm for the narwhal. Yet he often dived down to the cold base of, the iceberg and stayed there* as long as he could. In the course of its drift the berg- came a long way north—* past Chatham Islands and into the Wfeati •wind drift. But i% .{tad lost » gre»tf deal' of itß bulk by -the action of the warm wind and sea. It became smaller and shallower, till the day came wbert ! Pelorus Jack had no iceberg to keep; cool against, and her was a much-worried mammal indeed. He lay for many hours! and listened for the iee — for the almost; insensible vibrations by which he knew of objects being near him; and soon he 1 sensed something which caused a thrill -+o pass through him. The object was coming nearer, and Pelorus Jack amoved? towards it. Presently, almost beneath' him, a great bull-whale soared up through [ the ocean depths, ,and, crashing on to the surface, blew white vapour skyward* After this the white whale felt leas lonely.. He moved towards another centre of | sound-waves which reached him. This time the cause of the vibrations puzzled him. It was larger than a whale, andl it floated just below the surface of the 1 water. On its belly were lon«, trailing sea growths, and it moved slowly and! clumsily. Peloru6 Jack waited for it to (Sound so that he might see what sort/ of fish it was. But it made no downward move, only tossed and swung along slowly, now. and then wagging ite" strangely-6haped tail. Pelorus Jack followed it, in company with some porpoises, but always at a respectful distance. He never came up to blow near the' 6trang*e fish. In fact, he found the wate* •> at the surface so'uncomfortably warm thai/ he kept below for the greater part of the time. The warmth did not suit the" ice-bred fish, and though he adapted himself fo it somewhat be never grew to hid full size. Day alter day he followed the queer fish? ■he had discovered. Sometimes it vibrated, sending out sound-waves as the tense ice did.- That was when it was windy and? rough on the surface. And one day they came to a deep, rocky coast, where the" water was cool and fish abundant. There were sharks, too, and black-fish. Pelorus* Jack, continued to follow until he felt al strong tide beginning to drag him along* He swam warily, while the big fish above' him. began to move swiftly with the tide. There were muffled noises inside it, and l it threw a black young one overboard,' nearly striking the white whale. He' thought it was going to sound at last, but it was swept ewiftly away on the' rushing current, dragging its young onef along after it by a robe. Then the rope parted, and Pelorus Jack ixever saw " that! big fish again. He went down and smelt' the young one. It was cold and 6till, and! by instinct he knew that it had no life. • .How was he to know that ib was the" anchor of the ship of D'Urville or De Surville, the French navigator, who was caught by the tide and swept through the French Pass, the existence of which waa thus discovered ? For many years Pelorus Jack lived contentedly 'enough, in his new quarters. He found a cool, comfortable nook among' the ©eaweed and rocks, and he ■ almost! . forgot the ice and the great inland sea' and his old comrades.. Then on a day when he had chased and! captured his daily feast of fish, he \was * dozing and dreaming, when he euddenly stiffened in every nerve. He heard the; ice calling; louder and louder the sound) became — a drumnumg, tearing sound like wide floes crushing and straining and! splitting.. Like a flash, he raced towards it. As. he approached it- became deafening, and he leaped upward and blew hard i*i

W« Joy. Then 10, another big fist like that which he lost in the swift water so long ago. The same, except that at its iall & spinning fin tore the sea to foam and bubbles. He rubbed against the fish. It waa cold as ice, and it throbbed like the ice did. Pelorus Jack played around its snout Smd under its belly, always avoiding its fin. Onward it went, straight to the swift water, and once more Pelorus Jack lost his comrade. He heard it going away, ftway. Yet he would not follow through puch swift water. Later on the fish came, *nd afterwards others, some with two spinning fins. There was one fish whose fins sang more , of the ice than all the rest, and he always followed this one a long way when it was going to Picton or Wellington. On one nil afternoon when the sea was !ike Boiled ink and heavy looking as oil the silences of the. deep places were broken by the song of this steamer's fins. She came from Nelson, through the French Pass, and stopped to unload' stores at the settlement there. While her fins were 6ilent Pelorus Jack played lazily , around , the bay. On the steamer's deck was a man who carried a gun, : nd there was also . a man who was a great authority on the creatures of the sea, and they had both come specially to see this lonely fish which . ttiade friends with the ' steamers. The fins began spinning again, and the white •whale flew to meet the steamer. As she . gathered way he played in the foam" at Eer bows, cuddling against her, and now and again diving beneath her forefoot, them soaring to the 6UTface to snort through the blow-hole in his head. And the two men watched him, both curious to know what sort of fish he was as he turned and gyrated and sounded about this -toast-beloved of his steamer friends. The man with the gun raised it quickly to bis shoulder. There was a flash and a report. But quick as the man was, Pelorus Jack was quicker. There was not even a streak where he disappeared. Yet the bullet scratched him, and ever afterwards he associated the pain he felt with £ the fish whioh sang most like the ice, i and he never went out to meet ii. any tnore. The expert on .the denizens of the deep said there was no other mammal like him in the world, so the people who lived on and travelled by the steamers and who looked on Pelorus Jack as an old friend made an agitation, quoting the words of the man who watched Pelorus Jack in all friendliness, and the New Zealand Government made a law to protect ' Pelorus Jack from the harpoon of the whaler' and the bullet "of the- sharpshooter. So to this day the white whale •liv-es under £he protection of the Government, the only known fish of bis land, lurking among the seaweeds #nd the seasilences and listening for the spinning sns that "sing, to him the song* of the ice, and the wide inland sea where be lived so long . ago. A lonely fish with only the steamers for comrades-!