We had raised a small school of whales and had lowered four boats. The whales proved to be cows, most of them with calves accompanying them closely. I knew too little about whales then—I know no more now—to be able to tell the age of a whale calf by its appearance; these calves were not newly born, but yet they were so young that they had to come up to blow every three or four minutes. Mr. Baker struck a calf, probably thinking by that manœuvre he would find the capture of the mother easier. I know that I was rather shocked at his doing so at the time. There was nothing sporting about it. It was like murdering a baby. But there was nothing sporting about whaling—none of the sporting spirit, and my feeling was only momentary. It did seem short-sighted, at the least, to destroy an animal that could be of no possible use to us, and one which might grow up to be of considerable value to somebody. There should be some sort of international agreement not to kill calves or any cow under forty barrels or so. It would be in the interest of the whale fishery as an industry, and would very likely result, eventually, in making it easier to fill up a ship; like the restrictions on the seal fishery, or good game laws on land. Nobody supposes that the game laws exist from sympathy with the game; but where there is a good buck law, deer are abundant enough. {298} To come back to Mr. Baker; he knew whales very well, and ought to have known what would happen. The whole school of a dozen or fifteen cows brought to at once, and gathered around the wounded calf and Mr. Baker’s boat. They crowded so closely about the boat that Mr. Baker did not dare to use his lance, and had all he could do to keep his boat from being stove by the loose cows. The three other boats were at some distance when he struck. We pulled up as fast as we could, but could do nothing to help him. On the way over I heard Mr. Macy call to Mr. Tilton to look. I could see nothing, of course, having my back to whatever it was that he was calling attention to, but on our arrival on the outskirts of the school I saw what it was.