Presently, as we were watching the creature, it began to approach us
rapidly, causing a great agitation in the sea. Nearly the whole of the
body, if not all of it, had now disappeared, and the head advanced at
a great rate in the midst of a shower of fine spray, which was
evidently raised in some way by the quick movement of the animal--it
did not appear how--and not by spouting. F. was alarmed and retreated
to the cabin, crying out that the creature was coming down upon us.
When within about a hundred yards of us it sank and moved away in the
direction of Syke, just under the surface of the water, for we could
trace its course by the waves it raised on the still sea to the
distance of a mile or more. After this it continued at intervals to
show itself, careering about at a distance, as long as we were in that
part of the Sound; the head and a small part only of the body being
visible on the surface; but we did not again, on that day, see it so
near nor so well as at first.
At one time F. and K. and G. B. saw a fin sticking up at a little
distance back from the head, but neither of us were then observing. On
our return the next day we were again becalmed on the north side of
the opening of Lochourn, where it is about three miles wide, the day
warm and sunshiny as before. As we were dragging slowly along in the
afternoon the creature again appeared over towards the south side, at
a greater distance than we saw it the first day. It now showed itself
in three or four rather long lines, as in the sketch No. 2, and looked
considerably longer than it did the day before; as nearly as we could
compute, it looked at least sixty feet in length. Soon it began
careering about, showing but a small part of itself, as on the day
before, and appeared to be going up Lochourn. Later in the afternoon,
when we were still becalmed in the mouth of Lochourn, and by using the
oars had nearly reached the island of Sandaig, it came rushing past us
about a hundred and fifty yards to the south, on its return from
Lochourn. It went with great rapidity, its black head only being
visible through the clear sea, followed by a long trail of agitated
water. As it shot along, the noise of its rush through the water could
be distinctly heard on board. There were no organs of motion to be
seen, nor was there any shower of spray as on the day before, but
merely such a commotion in the sea as its quick passage might be
expected to make. Its progress was equable and smooth, like that of a
log towed rapidly. For the rest of the day, as we worked our way home
northwards through the Sound of Sleat, it was occasionally within
sight of us until nightfall, rushing about at a distance, as before,
and showing only its head, and a small part of its body on the
surface.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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