TILE THRESHER AND THE WHALE iTo THE EDITOR or THE
"SPECTATOR."] SIR, It le difficult to see what harm a comparatively small animal, such as a Thresher shark, could do to a large whale. The sperm whale—Physeter macrocephalus—and the Killer- whale—Orca gladiator—with their formidable teeth would regard a shark as beneath contempt. The large whale-bone whales could make use of their pectoral fins and tail as weapons of defence. The pectoral fin, reaching a length of 12 feet in the Humpback Msgaptera longimanc, is not to he despised. The tail or caudal fin, reaching a width of 25 feet in the Greenland whale—Baleen mystiectus—is very powerful in all whales, and is capable of delivering a terrific blow. In the bottle-nose Hyperoodon rostrata, a toothed whale occurring in herds in the North Atlantic, the head of the male is flattened in front and projects forward, and may possibly Oa used as a weapon of defence. All whales are, of course, very powerful swimmers, and ought easily, if the necessity arose, to make their escape from small fry like sharks.
It does not follow that because whales can be approached, harpooned, and eventually captured that they can be easily overcome by natural enemies. Their bulk is their undoing when attacked by man, and their strength is of no avail. It may not be so against natural enemies. Whales occasionally leap partly, or entirely, out of the water to rid themselves, perhaps, of lice, with which they are sometimes affected. They fall back into the water, making a "splash " visible miles away. This appearance may have given rise to the belief current among merchant sailors that they were being attacked and pursued by sharks. The writer, who made eight voyages in a whaler extending over a period of eight years, did not hear of or see an encounter between a shark and a whale.—I am, Sir, &c., R. W. GaAs, M.B.C.M. 7 Grange Road, Bushey, Herts.
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