I have enjoyed the rushes of gallant thirty- and even forty-pound salmon in heavy water on the Tay—the supreme moments in an angler’s life—but that was mere child’s play to the intense excitement which we experienced during the next three hours. To be in tow of a wild Whale is something to remember to one’s dying day. You feel that you are alive and that you are there with the sport of kings. No wonder the Norwegians are full of life; the men, from the captain to the cook, run to their several tasks with eyes and hearts aflame. This is a calling which will stir the blood of the dullest clod, and to men who are one and all the finest seamen in the world is the very life and essence of the Viking nature. Three hours of this fierce race went on, and the Whale seemed as if it would take us to Iceland. The gallant Finback was as fresh as ever when the captain gave the order, “Quarter speed astern.” With a tremendous strain on the rope and the churning of the backward driving screw our speed was at once reduced to ten knots. It was marvelous, the strength of that animal. The minutes and even the hours fled by, still the great Cetacean held on its northward course without a check. Three hours passed; then came the order “Half speed astern,” and we were down to six knots, the vessel and the Whale still fighting the battle for the mastery. In another hour the Whale showed visible signs of weakening when “Full speed astern” brought matters to a standstill. The machinery of man and the natural strength of the beast still worried on for another hour, and then we saw the steamer moving backwards, the Whale was done, and could pull no more.[8] Footnote 8: “The Mammals of Great Britain and Ireland.” By J. G. Millais. Longmans, Green, & Co., pp. 272–273. [Illustration: A finback taking an “intermediate” or “surface” dive. ] Although the blue and finback whales of the Atlantic and Pacific have been given different names, yet there is little doubt but that each is represented in all oceans by a single cosmopolitan species. Apparently no definite barriers exist to curtail the wanderings of the fin whales (_Balænopterinæ_), for they seem to be indifferent alike to tropic or Arctic temperatures and travel where they will. Probably the presence or absence of the little shrimp which forms their food is one of the greatest determining factors of their movements. In most oceans whales live under very similar conditions and naturalists are gradually coming to recognize that the laws of geographical separation which hold universally good for land mammals are not equally true in the case of cetaceans. In other words, if any group of land mammals is separated from others of its kind by impassable barriers such as water, mountains, deserts, etc., it will gradually develop changes in structure or external appearance due to differences of climate, food, or other conditions of environment.