under cover of a safe harbour.  There can be little doubt that the cause of the fishers’ frenzy was the quiet, inoffensive bottle-nosed whale, leisurely prowling about the Sound in search of a living, and, in fact, none other than the one that my friend had supposed to be a reef.  These creatures rarely run amuck until the harpoon is thrust into them.  They usually roll about the sea in the most harmless way.  No doubt the sight of a huge creature in localities unaccustomed to it creates an impression of dull alarm, and, strange though it be, some minds are so constituted that their superstitions and imaginations are always thirsting after association with the nether regions.

A common belief among seamen is that if rats migrate from a vessel that vessel is doomed; and many hardships have been endured at times on account of this belief.  I am inclined to favour the idea that these creatures are just as tenacious of life as human beings are; but to say they have keener intuitive capacity than we is arrant nonsense.  It is true they do not like leaky ships any more than their crews do; and they leave them for the same particular reasons as would induce them to leave districts on shore.  Scarcity of food or comfort, or danger of attack, create their itinerant moods.  Of course if their pasture is good they are difficult to get rid of.  They are prolific and cling to their young.  That unquestionably is a reason for their willingness to be driven from a position where the food supply may be precarious.  They have their channels of communication which are as difficult to cut off as to find out, so that when they do leave a vessel that is in port it is pretty certain they have heard of some more comfortable quarters and a better playground.  This accounts for them clearing out of a ship just before she sails, thus throwing some poor superstitious creature into abject fear that their exodus is the forerunner of calamity.  To carry the superstition out logically, instead of rats being exterminated throughout a place or a vessel, they should really be encouraged to remain and multiply.  I saw an extract from an American paper some years ago, and it told a sensational tale of a steamer which had arrived at Baltimore from Cuba, laden with iron ore.  During the passage the whole crew were attacked by swarms of rats, which had come aboard at the loading port.  The crew, including the captain, his wife, and family, were driven to take refuge on deck.  The rats became infuriated for want of food, and boldly clamoured for it, until it was decided to feed them discreetly from the ship’s stores.  Many of the crew were bitten.  Under less startling circumstances it is quite a common occurrence for seamen to have their toenails eaten off while they are asleep.  It rarely happens that the flesh is penetrated; and they nearly always go for the big toe.  People who have not seen such things are sure to be sceptical about the truth of this statement.  It can, however, be easily verified.  On the Baltimore