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interior of Backcup, I concluded that it was pursued, that
whalers were giving chase.

Some minutes passed before the whale rose again to the
surface. Its enormous body could be seen, green and slimy,
as if fighting witha formidable enemy. When it reappeared
two columns of water spouted with a great noise from its
blow-holes.

“Tf it is in order to escape the whalers that the whale
has rushed through the tunnel,” I said to myself, “there
must be a ship close to Backcup—perhaps only a few cable-
lengths from the shore. . . . Its boats have come up the
western channel to the foot of the island, and I cannot
communicate with them !”

If that is so, might it be possible for me to reach them
through the stone walls of Backcup ?

However, I was not left long in suspense as to the cause
of the whale’s appearance. Not whale-fishers were in
hot pursuit, but a crowd of the sharks that infest these
latitudes. I could easily make them out under the water.
They numbered five or six, and as they turned over on
their sides they opened their enormous jaws bristling with
teeth like a curry-comb. They flung themselves upon the
whale, which could only defend itself by thrashing with
its tail. It had already been badly wounded, and the
water was stained with blood as it plunged, rose, and sank,
in vain efforts to elude the teeth of the sharks. __

Nevertheless, those voracious animals were not to be
the conquerors in the strife. Their prey was about to
escape them, for man with his implements is more power-