Table of Contents Page Short Stories. 419 Whale v. Sharks. 419 A Battle in Mid-air. 422 Up in a Balloon. 425 Some “Freak” Memorials. 428 DOWN THE CHUTE: A Miner’s Extraordinary Experience. 436 Where Women Wear Trousers. 443 Retribution. 451 Mountain Tragedies of the Lake District. 457 Cupid and the Dentist. 464 My Experiences in Algeria. 469 I.—MY ADVENTURES IN ‘FRISCO. 476 II.—A Sharp Lesson. 480 III.—“Seeing It Out.” 485 In the Land of the Reindeer. 489 “Tapu.” 497 The Finches’ Festival. 503 The Fight at The A-T Ranch. 509 THE WIDE WORLD: In Other Magazines 515 Odds and Ends. 516 [Illustration: “WILLIAMS LASHED AT THE BIRD WITH HIS STICK.” (SEE PAGE 424.)] THE WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. Vol. XXII. FEBRUARY, 1909. No. 131 [Illustration: SHORT STORIES.] Another instalment of a fascinating budget of adventure narratives. This month we publish accounts of a fight to the death between a whale and a school of thresher sharks; a nest-robber’s terrible battle with an infuriated mother-eagle; and the nerve-trying experience which befell a Surrey cyclist while out for a Saturday afternoon spin. WHALE _v._ SHARKS. BY VICTOR PITT-KETHLEY. Early on the morning of August 14th last, while engaged in building new quarters for the lighthouse-keeper at Breaksea Island, near Rottnest, Western Australia, the contractor and his men noticed a bull whale, with a cow and calf, passing the island some distance off. They watched them with interest for awhile, noting the immense size of the two parents and the methodical regularity with which columns of water rose from their blowholes, and then resumed their labours.