"Maybe they poke 'em with that big fin," said Uncle Dick. "But they do the damage with their jaws. One of them will bite a chunk out of a whale, and as quick as he lets go another will take his place. They come pretty near to eating the whale alive sometimes, although I don't know that they really kill them very often." "Well, I don't know," said Rob, who was looking steadily ahead. "There is one right ahead of us who just came up, and he's acting mighty stupid. See, he's coming right across the bows. If we don't look out we'll hit him. There!" Even as he spoke there came a heavy jar which almost stopped the ocean vessel. Her steel-shod bow had struck the whale full in the middle of the body. "Caught him square amidships," sung out Captain Zim from his station. "I guess we finished what the killers began!" The great creature lay for an instant stunned on the surface of the water, its vast body bent as though its back were broken. Then as the ship passed on it slowly sank from sight, even as the school of whales, diving and breaching, also fell astern, still pursued by their savage enemies. "Well," said Captain Zim, "I've sailed these waters thirty years, but that's the first time I ever struck a whale." "I've promised these boys plenty of exciting things," commented Uncle Dick. "But if you don't mind, I'd rather you wouldn't run over any more whales. You'll be taking the keel out of this ship the first thing you know." "I see something else!" called Jesse, who was examining the rolling sea studiously with the field-glasses. "See it--right over there about two hundred yards! It looks like a man standing up in the water." "Oh, _that_," said Uncle Dick, "it's only a seal." "Couldn't I shoot it?" asked Rob. "I'd like to get its fur." Uncle Dick laughed. "You wouldn't find its hide worth more than a dollar or so, if you got it," said he. "That's only a little hair seal. You won't find any fur seals until you get a good many hundred miles beyond Kadiak. And that's a good many hundred miles yet from here. Let the little fellow go, and turn the glasses on that big bunch of whale-birds over there. See them flying--there's a string nearly a mile long." "I see them! I see them!" called out Rob. "There are thousands and thousands of them. I've seen them before, and one of the sailors told me that there is always most of them where there are whales around. They seem to feed on the same sort of things in the water, someway." "There are plenty of things you see up in this country," said Uncle Dick, as he turned away. "You may have thought Valdez was pretty much all of Alaska, but I'll show you it is just the beginning." "Do they have shipwrecks up here, Uncle Dick?" asked John. "It looks to me pretty rocky along these shores."