Show FISHERMEN ROBBED BY WHALES hales Raid a Seine and Liberate Thousands of Mackerel A writer in a late issue of tho New York Times relates one of the most exciting vents that ever took place in the fishing rounds off the coast of Maine It was on the southerly side of Mt Desert islaud last summer and in twenty seconds took the summers earnings of seventeen fishermen fisher-men To understand the situation one shoul know about a seine and how it Is used Its It-s a net 1320 or 1440 feet in length about noquarter of a mile The seine is so arranged ranged that it can bo let out into tho waters ss tne boat is rowed along When a school of mackerel is sighted and portion of the crow man the seine boat and then rapidly yet quietly pull up to and around the unsuspecting fish Mackerel vben schooling are always near the sur face and often so cluster together as to force some of their number partly out of I water A seine costsfrom 500 to SOO and from the first catch when landed and sols dd i sol-s generally deducted its cost and that of ho provisions used upon the vessel It is a serious thing with the fishermen to lose o r oven badly damage their seine Early on the day in question some sixty five sail ot the mackerel licetstood out from under the land near Sowest Harbor and headed southeast One big double topsail seiner carrying seventeen men worked t o the westward sailing near to Duck sland The schooners crew had sighted a school len were rushing to the sheets and halyards hal-yards to haul in or let go Approaching tho edge of the school the fishermen let go one end of tho seine and soon the bubbly water was surrounded by the net the bottom bot-tom of it was drawn up and 200 barrels or more of fish were thus imprisoned Very soon it was brought alongside the schooner and as another school was close at hand the haul was turned into the vessels pocket that the seine might bo used for another catchAll catch-All this was quickly done and again tho so ne was successfully drawn around and under another school At thatmomont not a schooner man would have sold out his in I torest in the fish for 100 though fifteen minutes later such interest was not worth a cent Suddenly half a dozen humpback whales made their appearance They h adds driven the mackerel to now feeding groun ad-ds and had followed them there and now the mackerel had been driven again to the Maine coast The number of the whales increased and all were active It was plain that the big denizens of the deep were having a feast All at once came loud shouts from the deck of tho schooner and there was heard the rattle of rigging it unreoved through the patent blocks upon the hoisting gear of tho pocket The men rushed madly to the side of their vossol and tumbled into thoir boats It seemed as though the giants were engaged engag-ed in deadly warfare All seemed to be sgin a hopeless tangle and so they were Tho whales swimming swiftly abouthad espied the big school of mackerel hanging in the floating seine and had made a rush for it Of course they stayed not at the network but darted through it It may be that one of these whales could tear away a seine a hundred tlmos as strong yet the cord was stout enough to tanglo about jawi and fins and terrorize tho robbers Now the whales each with more or less l of the snarl of tho lines about it darted this way and that down into the ocean and then out of it bending and twisting in every conceivable way to tho imminent danger of the schooners boats Realizing at last t that they might be upset at any moment the men turned and pullod back to the schooner No doubt the fisherman as they sat gloom ily about dock that nightgave vent to somi emphatic expressions concerning the hump back whale whaleCOT CUT A WHALE IX TWO It is not every day says the New York Times of last week that an ocean steamer and a whale come into collision but when they do it is very disastrous for the whale The Ethiopia from Glasgow to this port was running along last Saturday with a smooth sea and a clear sky when dead ahead airazorback whale came to tho sur face Second Officer Fife thought at firs that it was some unknown monster and before he could back the engines the steamer bit the whale The Ethiopia was going at sixteen knots and the whale wa cut in two as though a buzz saw had done it i When the Ethiopia passed along the tail of the whale was on the port sido and the head on the starboard side r c 1 |