Part 28 (1/2)
In 1892 a huge sperm whale rammed the rocks near Battle Harbor, where Dr Grenfell now has one of his hospitals
The whale evidently wondered why the rocks didn't give way--for nearly everything else he encountered had collapsed when he butted into it
He lunged once too often, and was left high, if not dry, on the beach
They towed hith, and proceeded to puallons were taken This oil in the whale's head, which reat jawbones
Of course the ”blowing” of the whale is one of its most remarkable performances A whale can stay below an hour, because he puts air into his blood by spouting about sixty ti him about ten minutes
Grenfell helped take to pieces a ”sulphur-bottoh nearly 300,000 pounds A boat could row into the”It took four of us a whole afternoon, with axes and swords mounted on pike handles, to cut out one bone and carry it to our stea at the end, where the joint came, they ”had to walk almost in the footsteps of Jonah”
The whale is the one anie--and it is said whales have lived to be a thousand years old A wolf is aged at twenty, a caribou or fox at fifteen A personal acquaintance of the Doctor was a black-backed gull which had been in captivity for thirty-two years
The timber-wolf, which elsewhere is so fierce an animal, is comparatively mild-mannered in Labrador, and Grenfell has found no record of these wolves attacking h in packs they have often followed the settlers to the doors of their houses
There is nothing good to be said of the Labrador tiers of Audubon's tier's sake but for the sheer love of killing aniht back
Often the bodies of deer are found with only the tongues and the windpipe torn out by the mean and cowardly slayer
Sometimes the wolf bites the deer in the small of the back: or several wolves will stalk a caribou, so about to distract the attention of their prey while others creep up on it from behind
The caribou are amiable and affectionate, and it is easy to ta They make very satisfactory pets
Grenfell had one which ith hi or a cat
If not taken ashore, it would stand crying at the rail
It would follow him about while on land, and swim after its master when Grenfell was in a rowboat
In the field it would cos would stand up on its hind legs and try desperately to butt its way out and follow the Doctor
Sometimes the caribou has been successfully used to haul a sled
The Labrador black bear is alht a cub, and in the winter-tiave hi no uide him
The bear knew by instinct how towinter sleep
He found grass and moss, put them in the barrel, and tra could hardly have bettered
We all know the story of General Israel Putnam,--how he crawled into the wolf-den at Poht of its own eyes” A trapper in Labrador, instead of crawling into a den where an animal lay, entered an empty lair, under a cliff It seemed to have been made on purpose for campers