“But there are lots of things whales do that remind you a good deal of human folks. Sometimes you see a lot of sperm whales together, and that’s what you call a big school. Then sometimes you see a little school. Now both them schools may be all bulls, or they may be all cows, with just one bull to take care of ’em. In such case this one bull is a good deal of a gentleman, for, if there’s anything from behind to cause fright, he seems to tell the ladies to make tracks, and he stays behind to look out for the enemy—whether it’s a whaleboat or whatever it is. So this bull, with his caravan, goes travelin’ all over the ocean. Now you let any other bull come near and there’s sure to be a fight. In one of my voyages we saw a fight in the Pacific Ocean. It was a fine day and a smooth sea. The lookout called out whales, and we lowered. It seems it was a school of cow sperms, and there was a big bull with ’em. As we were gettin’ pretty near, another big bull, that had been soundin’, come up not far off, and the two went for each other. Their heads come together with terrible force, and, believe me, you could hear the noise a mile away. Then they drew back and seemed to rest for a minute and then they went at it again. This time they locked jaws. But there was somethin’ clumsy about it. They didn’t seem to show the spunk they did when they first come together. The ladies all disappeared, and we men in the boats laid on our oars and watched the battle, pretty sure we’d get both fellows in the end, and we did. They tried to twist their jaws round without doin’ very much, except that in wigglin’ their bodies and rollin’ round they made lots of suds. It was pretty certain that both of ’em was badly hurt. Our boat and another stole up quietly and we got both of them. And what do you think we found out? Why, one of ’em had his jaw twisted and a number of his teeth torn out, while the jaw of the other was broken off, so that it hung only by the flesh. It’s no uncommon thing to capture a whale whose jaw was long ago shattered and his head battered, and who’s had an awful hard time to get food to eat because he couldn’t fight the cuttlefish. We call them whales ‘dry-skins’ because the blubber makes so little oil.” “Did you ever see a cuttlefish?” I asked eagerly. Kreelman was silent for some time. Then he replied: “I’ve seen big pieces of ’em which come out of the stomachs of sperm whales, but I never see a live one, and I don’t know any one who ever did. When you talk of them great things at the bottom of the ocean it kind of makes you creep. Some folks say that they’ve come up to the surface and run their big arms all over vessels and taken the crew under water and eaten ’em up. I never seen it. Whalemen don’t like to talk much about the cuttlefish, but some do say that the whaleship which sees a cuttlefish never returns to port.”