Show VERY LIKE A WH LEOne LE-One of the Biggest Fish Stories Sto-ries on Record ij i ij j j THE GREAT SALT LA1CELA i t Ylckhnmli Wicked Yarn Tho Proba I Jlo Origin of Cite Bear Lake 5 S flloiieter Whopper The following from the Montieal Family Herald and Weekly Star pomes within the range of the Muachausen aiticles which sensational scribblers and pen yaHners hatch for the delectation delec-tation of tbeir unsuspscting readers und palm off as verities The story will be read by people of the west with mucn thu same interest as a chapter from the Arabian Nights Mr WickL ham whoayer he is deserves the ban for the perpetration of the annexed Intelligent newspaper readers have not forgotten tleJ inauguration fifteen years ago by Mr James Wickham a scienuhc English gentleman of the whale industry in the Great Salt Lake As considerable time was required for the development of the experiment the subject has passed out of the public mind but it has by no means been forgotten for-gotten by naturalists or capitalists interested in-terested in the whale fishery The whale is tho largest and probably the longest lived animal They have been known to grow to 100 feet in length and live to the age of 400 years It is a mam malor in other words suckles its young The PIojEct of Mr Wickhlim was greatly assisted by this fact for the difficulty that would attend the obtaining of whale eggs in the deep seas is at once apparent It waa only necessary to obtain a pair of whales in order to begin the propagation propaga-tion of animals under domestication The southern or Australian whale wts selected as best suited to the climate of the Great Salt Lake The greater part of two years were occupied off the coasts of Australia by a vessel sent especially es-pecially for he purpose in continued efforts ef-forts to capture tho young whales without with-out injury The feat how ver was at i llt accomplished and the beasts each about thirty ve feet long were shipped to San Franoisco in 1873 in tanks built expressly them Fifty tanks of seawater sea-water accompanied tbeir overland shipment ship-ment to insure plentiful supplies of tue natural element Mr Wickham came from London in person to superintend the planting11 of his leviathan pets He selected a small bay near the mouth of Boar River connected with the main water by a shallow strait half a mile wide Across this strait he built a wire fence and inside the pen BO formed he turned the whales loose After a few minutes inactivity they disported themselves in a lively manner spouting water as in midocean but as if taking in by instinct in-stinct or intention the cramped character of their new home they suddenly sud-denly made a bee line for deep water and shot through the wire fence as it it had been mad of threads In twenty minutes they were out of sight and the chagrined Mr Viokham stood gazing hopelessly at thebig salt wat r If ireat Salt Lake were in Asia it would be called a sea It is seventy five miles long and from thirty to forty wide so it is easy to perceive how readily read-ily the whales could vanish from sight Thongh the enterprising owner was of course disappointed and doubtful of results he loft an agent behind him fto look after his floating property Six months later Mr Wickhsms representative came upon the whales fifty miles from the bay where they had broken away and from that time to the present they have been observed at intervals in-tervals by him and the watermen who ply the lake spouting and playing Within the last few days however Mr Wickham cabled directions to make a carefal inspection and report the Developments De-velopments afld the agent followed the whales for five successful days and nights discovering that the original pair are now sixty feet in length and followed about by a school of several hundred young varying in length from I three to fifteen feet The scheme isa surprising and complete success and Mr Wickham has earned tho thanks of mankind Catching whales in Great Salt Lake and following that business off the dangerous dan-gerous Greenland coast are two qdite different things The enormous value of the new industry can be better appreciated appre-ciated by remembering that a single whale produces twenty tons of pure 011 |