6 AUGUST 1948, Page 17

• THE SOUND OF WHALES SIR,—" Generally when he had

concluded a period, in the course of a dispute, by which time he was a good deal exhausted by violence and vociferation, he used to blow out his breath like a whale This, I suppose, was a relief to his lungs ; and seemed in him to be a contemptuous mode of expression, as if he had made the arguments of his opponent fly like chaff before the wind " (Boswell on Doctor Johnson). I wish the whales could treat their opponents with similar success.—Yours, &c.,

APSLEY CHERRY-GARRARD.