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PAGE EIGHT
HANK HOKUM AND WIDOW JONES-Watch Your Step
By T. E. POWERS, the Famous Cartoonist
Copyright, li>l2 by American Journal-Examiner. Great Britain Ri<hta Reserved.
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« THE STORY OF PELORUS TACK *
/ I aO make this fish story abso-
I lutely true, I shall begin by
saying that the subject of the
story is not a real fish at all, but a
strange animal that so resembles
one that be is known throughout
the Southern Hemisphere as the
wonderful pilot fish of New Zea
land. Instead of being equipped
with the usual breathing apparatus
of the fish, he is a mammal, more
akin to the whale. He Is a true
cetacean, but in his movements he
is much more active than a whale.
In size he resembles some species
of a large fish His length is four
teen feet; his weight is. of course,
unknown—perhaps KOO or 700
pounds.
This remarkable creature's home
is in the center of New Zealand, in
Cooks strait, which separates the
North and South islands, and in
that part of the strait known as
Pelorus sound. Pelorus Jack is
the name by which he is univer
sally known. Not only is his name
a household word throughout New
Zealand, but even the governor
himself Is not such a celebrity as
is Pelorus Jack; and believe it. for
it is true, the New Zealand par
liament has officially taken pains to
perpetuate his name and fame to
future generations of New Zea
landers in recognition of his disin
terested services to the shipping in
terests of the country.
It may be stated incidentally
that this special legislation on the
part of the parliament of New Zea
land was enacted at the time when
the country was aroused over the
news that some one had attempted
to kill this famous pilot, and it was
the subject of the enactment to pro
tect him by heavily penalizing any
similar attempt in the future.
This story of Pelorus Jack Is en
tirely authentic. I took pains to
get the story or history from many
independent sources, and only in
one very minor detail was there the
slightest variation. But to read
about Pelorus Jack is very differ
ent from seeing him We had heard
so much about him that mj wife
and I determined to have this expe
rience, no matter what else we
might have to omit among the won
ders of New Zealand.
JACK WAS A TRIFLE LATE.
A coaching party of three days
took us through the marvelously
beautiful Otira gorge and Buller
gorge and on to Nelson, from which
port, after a quiet rest of two days,
we took passage on the steamer
Pateena for Wellington byway of
Pelorus sound. The reason for
taking this voyage, as I have al
ready stated, was to see Pelorus
Jack, the pilot. He was a trifle
late in keeping his appointment
with the steamer Pateena. proba
bly having gone a little too far
while fishing in an adjacent bay.
To digress a moment, it may be
'—MAGAZINE SECTION
Being the 7 rue Narrative of a Remarkable Pilot Fish of Netv Zealand
.J, J. SIMMONS, A.M., LL.D., President of Bronau College, Gainesville, Ga.
added that Pelorus Jack is said to
subsist on his catch of octopus or
devl 1 ! fish, which 1« getting rather
scarce in his own sound, and he has
to make continually longer excur
sions in search of his food, though
he does not allow this to interfere
with his business as pilot in mak
ing his regular trips six days in the
week—meeting steamers on Tues
days, Thursdays and Saturdays from
Nelson, and, in opposite direction.
Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays
from Wellington.
While waiting for him to pick up
the steamer Pateena. I conversed
with other passengers, who. being
natives of New Zealand, have made
this trip frequently and are per
fectly familiar with Pelorus Jack.
The gentleman on my left, an actor,
was so fortunate as to have gotten
a kodak picture of him on a pre
vious trip, the best extant photo
graph of Pelorus Jack, and was
paid by a postcard publisher S4OO
for the negative. Not only during
the little wait, but during the en
tire voyage, some passengers who
were making the trip with the
same object as ourselves spent their
time asking questions and getting
information as to the history of
Pelorus Jack, which 1 shall try to
repeat accurately.
But here comes Pelorus Jack
himself; realizing that he is a little
late, he has hurriedly left his fish
ing ground some miles away, trav
els a circuitous route to get back
into Pelorus sound, rounds a prom
ontory, and the remaining three
miles between him and the Pateena
lie travels with Incredible speed,
calculating so accurately the rela
tive velocity of his own swimming
and the steaming of the Pateena
that the trip from the promontory
to the ship is made in an absolute
ly straight line —a feat that a hu
man pilot would hardly be able to
accomplish.
We had all been standing on the
fol-ward deck, scanning the water
ahead of us. looking for Pelorus
Jack to come, and just as he round
ed the promontory, the gentleman
at my elbow said. "Yonder he
eomes," pointing in that direction.
1 missed the sight, but, continuing
to look. 1 saw in an instant some
dp thing jump out of the water, again
and again, nearer and nearer, until
in an incredibly short time he was
with us. Hearing the story with
out an explanation of his method
of swimming, one would naturally
inquire. "How is it possible that one
could see a fish in the water swim
ming at. say, a rate of 25 to 30
miles an hour, as much as three
miles off?" "Could one see. that
far off, any kind of fish at all, even
THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN AND NEWS. SATURDAY. AUGUST 3,1912.
if he were as big as a whale?”
Certainly not, but remember, please,
that he travels in the air as well as
through the water, and it was only
while he was out in the air that we
could see him on his rapid run to
meet his appointment with our
steamer.
FLIES THROUGH THE AIR.
Os course, a larger aquatic mam
mal, like a common whale, being
too heavy to throw his entire body
out of the water, can live only by
bringing his head to the surface to
take the air into his lungs, and as
we travel through the different
oceans, we are all familiar with the
sight of whales blowing. It isT dif
ferent with Pelorus Jack. Being a
mammal, he must breathe, of
course, but he has not the time to
do it in whale fashion. Traveling,
as he does. aT a speed of from 15
to 30 miles an hour, it is much
easier for him to adopt the method
of the Hying fish, and this is what
he does: swims, jumps entirely out
of the water, and continues again
in the water, without varying his
speed in the slightest degree.
This explains easily how we
watched him when he came in such
a hurry to meet his appointment
with the Pateena. This explains,
also, how it is possible to get a
photograph of him. and why it is
so difficult to get a good one, for
the attempt to photograph a fish in
the sea would be absurd, and if a
camera should snap at him while
he is blowing and is covered with
the spray, the result would be an
indefinite mass of white that would
not be of any value as a picture.
It has taken longer to tell how
Pelorus Jack came to meet the Pa
teena than it took him to the
trip.
As I was standing on the very
front of the bow, looking down on
the left. Pelorus Jack came up to
the ship, immediately below me,
and rubbed his nose against the
vessel, apparently delighted at
being with the ship again. This
salutation struck me with amaze
ment. for it looked as If there were
some connection between this and
the common salutation of the Mao
ris or native dark-skinned people
of New Zealand, who, on meeting
each other, always rub their noses
together instead of kissing. Then
he dived under the ship and sa
luted it in the same way again on
the other side, as if he expected •
these salutations to be appreciated
by the passengers and wished to
show his perfect impartiality.
TAKES CHARGE AS PILOT.
After these salutations were
over, he then took charge of the
ship, swimming immediately before
her, exactly in front of her nose,
seeming to say, “Be careful to fol
low exactly where I lead.”
I fancy that the unusual exercise
of trying to get to the Pateena in
time from his distant fishing
ground, though I have only the
statement of the New Zealanders
that he was probably off looking
for devil fish when we arrived in
Pelorus sound, was probably the
cause of his breathing (or blowing)
somewhat faster than usual, for his
jump out of the water semed to me
to occur at intervals of a minute
each.
It must be confessed that my
surprise and excitement and the
fact that I had not much more
than a fifth of a second to manipu
late my kodak, caused me to snap
it without any attempt to sight it
definitely at him; and so. although
I was fortunate enough to get two
or three pictures of him, in not
one of these did I get him in the
center of the field: and thus, al
though some of them were well
timed, no picture that I made suc
ceeded in getting his entire body.
It must not be supposed that
Pelorus Jack in piloting these ships
that ply between Nelson and Wel
lington accompanies them through
out their entire voyage, any more
than one would expect a pilot tn
charge of a ship starting from New
A ork to Liverpool to accompany It
all the way across the Atlantic.
There is only one certain piece of
water—Pelorus sound —in which he
does duty as a pilot, the exact dis
tance 1 do not know. Naturally in
m.v excitement and interest in Pe
lorus Jack. I did not think to look I
at my watch, but Y fancy that the
time that he remained with the
Pateena was about 30 minutes and
the distance was. therefore, eight
or ten miles. This is merely a
guess, of course.
HAS WORKED 35 YEARS.
Pelorus Jack is said to be with
out relatives and without friends
except the people who travel
through these waters and to whose
welfare he devotes his life. There
Is said to be no extant animal that
resembles him—no other member
of his species. We may call him a
small white whale, but he is very
unlike any other whale. Doubt
less, he is a freak, disliked by any
other whale or fish, and who has
no other companions than the peo
ple on the ships he pilots. It is said
that whales sometimes live to be
1.000 years of age. As to the age
of Pelorus Jack, it is guessed that
it is about 200 years old. He has
been engaged in this business of
piloting ships for 35 years.
His duties as pilot take him reg-
ularly through these waters six
days in the week. For four years,
however, instead of making all six
of these trips, he has kept a very
rigid boycott of the steamer Pen
guin, and the most singular part
of the story Is that during the en
tire time he never made a mistake
In the calendar or failed to distin
guish between the ships he piloted,
avoiding the Penguin unerringly.
The Penguin was the ship from
which the person to whom I have
referred made the attempt upon the
life of Pelorus Jack—shot at him.
There is an incident which w’ould -
seem incredible if it were not in
disputably proven, about the pilot
ing of the Penguin. After four
years. Pelorus Jack decided that
he would withdraw his boycott and
to pilot the Penguin as formerly;
and so he did. That very night,
twelve hours after he had safely
piloted her through Pelorus sound,
the Penguin in a dense fog off the
coast of North Island, as she was
nearing Wellington, mistook the
shore lights and went in at the
wrong place. She got upon the
rocks and went down with a great
loss of life. Os course there was
no connection between her being
piloted by Pelorus jack at noon
and her destruction at Wellington
at midnight of the same day;
merely a strange coincidence.
A hotel guest took kindly Interest in
a bright-faced page boy, who had an
swered his call very promptly.
"What is your name, boy?” he in
quired.
They call me ‘Billiard Cue.’” re
plied the youth.
Billiard Cue!' And why is that?”
"Because I work so much better with
a good tip.”
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