waiting to let me out. I knuckled my forehead again, and putting on
rather a clumsier limp than before, got out of the house into the rain
and mud. Rain and mud! What did I care for rain and mud now?
'Sergeant Nickham,' says I, when I got fairly out of range of her
windows, for I wouldn't trust _her_ with so much as a wink of
mine--'Sergeant Nickham,' I said, 'you are the boy! If you can't
command your face, there isn't a man in the force as can. If you
haven't got a memory for faces, find me the man who has, that's all
about it!'
Why, of all the extraordinary capers that I ever tumbled to in my
life, I never came near such a caper as this. Miss Doyle! _That_ was
Miss Doyle, was it? Right enough, no doubt; but if she wasn't also the
sham clerk who came and found that I was put on the watch by Mr Byrle,
I didn't know a horse from a hedgehog--that's all. The quick look of
her eye, her sharp quick voice, the shape of her face, the very way
she stood--lor! it was all as clear as daylight. But then I thought,
and I kept on thinking till I had got back to the works, what could
_she_ have to do with stealing engine-fittings? 'Twasn't likely as she
had anything to do with that. It was past all question in my mind as
to her being the same party. I knew it for certain; and then came the
point--What did she dress herself up for and come a-spying on me and
her uncle?--for she was Mr Byrle's niece.
I hadn't got to the bottom of this by any means, by the time I got back
to the works; however, I gave my message very respectfully to Mr Forey;
and offered Bob the gatekeeper his sixpence back, with many thanks.
'No, old chap,' he says; 'keep it at present. If you get on regular,
I'll take it off you and a pint into the bargain the day you draw
your first week's cash; but a fellow out of work knows the vally of a
sixpence.'
The same ferryman took me back; and his temper hadn't improved, I
found. I fancied too that he was particular watchful of me, and so
I was particular watchful of him; and from long practice I could do
it better and more secretly than he could, although he _had_ got a
cross-eye. Lor! I could tell when we were nearing that same ship that
the man climbed out of; I could tell it by the cunning way in which the
boatman looked at me, to see if I would take any special notice of it.
I didn't know what his little game might be, but I determined to spoil
it; so I stooped down, and was tying up my shoe, making quite a long
job of it, till after we had fairly passed the craft, and then I looked
up with an innocent face that quite settled him.
Just as we pushed up to the hard (that's the landing-place), he says to
me: 'Do you often cross here?'
'Not often,' I said; 'at anyrate, not yet. I generally cross a little
higher up.' (That was very true; about Westminster Bridge was my
place; if he liked to think I meant somewhere about Tooley Street or
Billingsgate, of course I couldn't help it.) 'But I have left my old
quarters, and so I shall often go this way.'
'Ah,' he says, 'you live at the _Yarmouth Smack_, don't you?'
'The what?' I said. 'Where's that?'
'The _Yarmouth Smack_,' he says again, pointing to the side we had come
from. I knew where the _Yarmouth Smack_ was well enough; but I shook my
head, and said: 'No; I live on this side of the water; but I shall live
anywhere when I can get work.'
He didn't say any more; I did not suppose he would; but there was
something uncommonly suspicious in his talking about the _Yarmouth
Smack_, something more than I could believe came from chance.
In the lane, just as I was about to turn into the side door of the
_Anchor_, I met the foreign-looking captain, who must have crossed the
river before me, as I had last seen him on the other side. He knew
me, I could tell well enough, and I knew him; but I was not going to
let him see where I was going, so I passed the door of the _Anchor_,
limping on till he was clear; then I hurried in, went upstairs at once,
and was out in the old ruined arbours I have spoken of in a minute.
These overhung the river at high-water (it was nearly high-tide now),
and the landing-place of the ferry was close to them. The ferryman and
the captain were talking, as I expected they would be, while the boat
was waiting for passengers; and by standing in the corner box, I could
have heard every word they said, if they had spoken out, as honest
people should speak. But they were that artful and suspicious, although
they could not have known there was anybody listening, that they talked
almost in whispers, and I only caught the last bit from the ferryman.
'No,' he says; 'he's not the party; but I'll go up to the _Smack_
to-night and make sure of the man.'
Ah! as I thought; they were both in it somehow. But what a most
extraordinary fuss and Gunpowder Plot sort of business there was about
stealing a few bits of metal. I actually should have felt ashamed of
the East-enders, who are really some of the sharpest folks I ever came
across, if I had not felt there was a something behind, and that, by a
lucky accident, I seemed upon the point of finding it out.
The night--my first night in the east too--was not to pass without
an adventure, and I had not seen the last of my new acquaintance the
captain. I got very tired of the company in the _Anchor_--not that I
mind who I mix with, and if there had been any of the factory hands
about the place, I would have sat with them until the house closed; but
they only came there at meal-times it seemed, or on their road home. So
I walked about the neighbourhood a bit; not because it was pleasant,
for it was a wet night; and what with the rain and the mud and the
drunken sailors and the fried-fish shops and the quarrelling there was
going on, it was anything but agreeable. The fact is I like to know
every court and alley in my district, and there _were_ some pretty
courts and alleys here. However, nobody thought me worth robbing, and
besides, I am always civil, so I never get interfered with. It's a
capital rule; the best I know; and costs nothing.
When I was coming back, and had got pretty nearly to the _Anchor and
Five Mermaids_ again (it is very absurd to give such long signs to
public-houses), I saw a very pretty girl whom I had noticed before,
standing at a corner out of the rain; but it was not raining very much
now. She wasn't--well, I won't say what she was not, or what she was.
She was very pretty, I say, and was doing no harm there; but two or
three fellows coming by at the moment, one of them took hold of her
roughly, and finished by almost pushing her down. She got away from
him, and drew a door or two off; but his companions laughing at him
for being bested by a woman, he followed her, and on her pushing him
from her, gave her a back-handed smack in the face. There were several
men loitering about, smoking and so forth, and I heard one or two say
it was a shame; but none of them interfered; and I, being a little way
off, and not wanting to get into a row, might have passed this over;
but she called him a brute and a coward, and he went at her to strike
her again. She ran across the road to where I stood, to avoid him, and
he followed her. Then I saw it was my acquaintance the captain.
He swore more horribly than ever I heard any one swear, and springing
forward, would certainly have hit her down; but I jumped between
them and knocked up his arm. 'Brayvo!' said some women, who had been
attracted by the girl's scream; and 'Brayvo!' said the men who hadn't
interfered. At once the captain turned on me, and let fly desperately
at my head; but I was not to be had in that way, and I stopped him and
returned a hit that I know must have loosened a couple of teeth; and
then he swore again, and began to pull off his coat. So did I.
'Don't fight wid him, my darlin',' said an old Irishwoman, who was
selling herrings, laying her hand on my arm. 'You 're an honest English
boy, and these fellows will have a knife in ye if they can't bate ye
fair.'
'No, Biddy, they shan't,' said one of the men coming forward, followed
by half-a-dozen more. 'If there's to be a fight, it shall be a fair
one; and mates, we'll put any fellow into six feet of mud who only
shews a knife.'
His mates said so too, and they were a rough and likely lot for it,
and the river was within a score or so of yards. So with a scowl at
them (for I do believe now he meant murder; I didn't think of it then,
although I was a policeman), he rolled up his sleeves and came at me.
He was a strong fellow, not so tall perhaps, but certainly heavier than
I was, and I daresay, from his manner, fancied he could fight. But
fight _me_! Why, a gent once offered through Alec Keene (he had seen
me spar in private at Alec's), to make it worth my while to leave the
police, and he would back me against any ten-stone-four man I fancied,
for a hundred; and I was half inclined to take it too, only something
important turned up just then. Well, in two rounds I settled the
captain. He tried to catch hold of me and throw me; but I knocked him
clean off his legs each round; and then his friends took him away.
'There's one comfort at any rate in having had the row,' I thought:
'he'll never suppose I'm a detective after this.'
I wished, however, it had never come off, there was such a fuss. Why,
if I could have drunk shillings and sixpences, I might have had them, I
do believe. In a place like that you get a crowd directly; and although
the affair did not last three minutes, there was a hundred men and as
many women too, anxious to treat me; and I was naturally obliged to
drink with one or two; not at the _Anchor_ though.
The affair made such a stir, that I read in one of the local papers the
next week how Jem Mace had been down in the neighbourhood of the Docks,
incog.; and that for once the brute strength of a boxer had been used
in a good cause, and all that sort of nonsense. I know I have always
found the best class of boxers very good fellows.
Of course I was vexed at this shindy having taken place so early, as
the quieter I kept myself the better; and I would have given five
pounds to have been out of it. My wishing this only shews you never
know what is coming; and something came out of this street fight that I
never expected.
SEA-LIONS.
The domestication of a pair of 'sea-lions' at the Brighton Aquarium,
and the subsequent addition, some few months ago, of a 'little
stranger' to this interesting family circle, afford an opportunity
for a brief description of some of the more prominent points in
the structure and habits of these little-known animals. The name
'sea-lion,' to begin with, is by no means so inappropriate or far
fetched as popular designations are usually found to be, when submitted
to scientific criticism. For the 'sea-lion' is included by zoologists
along with the seals and walruses in the great Carnivorous order of
quadrupeds, to which, it need hardly be remarked, the lions, tigers,
bears, dogs, and other flesh-eaters belong. The sea-lion is in fact a
large seal, and seals and walruses are simply marine bears; and if we
can imagine the body of a familiar bear to be somewhat elongated, and
that the limbs were converted into swimming paddles, we should obtain
a rough but essentially correct idea of the zoological position of the
seals and their neighbours.
But whilst the seals and sea-lions are united with the walruses to form
a special group of carnivorous quadrupeds, adapted to lead a life in
the sea, there exist some very prominent points of difference between
the common seals and the less familiar sea-lions. The sea-lions and
their nearest allies are thus sometimes named 'Eared' seals, from the
possession of an outer ear; the latter appendage being absent in the
common or True seals. And whilst the common seals waddle in a most
ungainly fashion on land, the sea-lions are able to 'walk,' if not
elegantly, at least with a better show of comfort than their more
familiar neighbours. A glance at the structure of the sea-lion's feet,
or better still, a comparison of its members with those of the seal,
shews the reason of its greater skill and ability in progression on
the land. The fore-limbs of the seal are, so to speak buried in the
skin, below the elbow; only a small part of the fore-arm and hand being
thus free from the body. The hind-limbs of the seals, again, exist
in a permanently extended condition, and are disposed backwards in a
line with the tail and body. The hind-limbs, moreover, are frequently
united with the tail by means of a connecting fold of skin, and the
whole hinder extremity of the body in a seal may thus be regarded as
forming a large tail-fin. In swimming, the fore-limbs of the seal are
applied closely to the sides of the body, and serve as rudders; whilst
the hinder portion of the body, hinder limbs, and tail, constitute the
swimming-organs--a work for which by their great flexibility they are
perfectly adapted.
In the sea-lions on the other hand the fore-limbs are free from the
skin and body to a much greater extent than in the seals. The 'hand'
itself in the sea-lion is exceedingly flexible, although completely
enclosed in a horny or leathery skin. The thumbs of this hand further
exist in a well developed state; all five fingers being of nearly the
same length in the seal. As regards the hind-feet of the sea-lion,
these members, like the fore-limbs, are freely separated from the
body, at least as far as the ankle and foot are concerned, and the
foot is turned outwards, forcibly reminding one of the conformation
of that organ in the bear. But we may only note by way of conclusion
to these zoological characters that the teeth of the sea-lion are
decidedly of a carnivorous type. Any one regarding the skull of a
sea-lion could readily form the idea that the animal which possessed
it was a flesh-eater. These animals usually possess thirty-six teeth;
the 'eye' teeth being of very large size, and so placed in the jaws
that any substance entering the mouth is firmly held by these teeth
and the adjoining front teeth. The 'grinders' of the sea-lion are
small, and do not appear to be of any very great use to the animal.
These creatures swallow their food--consisting of fishes, molluscs, and
sea-birds--whole, and when a large fish is divided in two, the portion
retained in the mouth is swallowed; the portion which tumbles into the
water being afterwards seized and duly swallowed in its turn.
That the sea-lions are by no means destitute of the craft and cunning
of their land-neighbours, is proved by the fact that they capture such
birds as the penguins by lying motionless in the water, allowing merely
the tip of the nose to appear at the surface. The unwary bird, swooping
down upon the floating object, presumed to consist of something
eatable, is then seized and devoured by the concealed enemy.
Sea-lions may be regarded as the unknown, or at anyrate unrecognised
benefactors of the fair sex, inasmuch as, from the rich _under-fur_
which they possess, the favourite material known as 'seal-skin' is
obtained. This latter name is entirely misleading in its nature; the
much prized material being the produce of the sea-lion and not of a
true seal. The possession of this valuable under-fur has contributed
very largely to the causes of the indiscriminate attack which has for
years past been made upon the sea-lions. The spirit of commercial
enterprise has resulted in a war of extermination against these animals
in certain regions, from the effects of which it is doubtful if the
species can ultimately recover.
The sea-lions differ materially from the seals in their geographical
distribution. The latter animals, as every casual reader of a natural
history text-book knows, inhabit temperate and northern seas. The
sea-lions, on the other hand, are found to be absent from all parts of
the Atlantic Ocean save its most southern portions. They are common
on the South American coasts, and are found inhabiting island-groups
which may be regarded as belonging to the same zoological province
as the latter continent. The mouth of the River Plate is stated as
the most northern boundary of these animals on the eastern side of
South America, whilst on the western or Pacific side of the New World
they are found on the Californian coasts, and are even met with on
the coasts of the Aleutian Isles and of Japan. The Pribylov Islands,
included in the Alaska group, are regarded as forming the most
northerly point of the sea-lions' distribution; and these islands--now
in the possession of the United States--together with the Falkland
Islands and the Cape of Good Hope, still form the three chief sources
from which the seal-fur or seal-skin of commerce is obtained. It is
also well ascertained that sea-lions occur at Kerguelen's Land, on the
New Zealand coasts, on the Tasmanian shores, and the east and south
coasts of Australia.
The average length of a large male sea-lion ranges from six to seven
or eight feet, his weight averaging six hundred pounds. The females
are of much smaller size than the males, and measure from four and a
half to five feet in length; their weight being from one hundred to
one hundred and fifty pounds. These animals, as might be expected,
grow slowly, and attain their full dimensions the males in six, and
the females in four years. The habits of these animals are not only of
curious and interesting nature, but evince a decidedly high order of
intelligence. The haunts of the sea-lions are, in whalers' _parlance_,
named 'rookeries;' and in the disposition of what may be termed
their domestic arrangements, as well as in the regulation of their
family and personal matters, these creatures appear to be guided by
instincts which, like the social order of the ants and bees, are duly
perpetuated, and have become of hereditary character. The sea-lions
are migratory in habits, and disappear from the majority of the haunts
and breeding-places in winter. The males are few in number as compared
with the females or 'cows,' as they are termed; and each male receives
under his protection a larger or smaller number of females; the oldest
males possessing the largest number of dependants. In the early spring,
some old males appear to return first to the haunts and do duty as
reconnoitring parties; the advance-guard swimming about for several
days, then landing and cautiously investigating the state of the land;
their shore-visits being spent in a state of perpetual sniffing, and in
the careful examination of their old haunt. About a month or six weeks
after the arrival of the advance-guard, and after the inspection of the
land has been duly carried out, sure signs of the coming race begin
to appear in the form of hundreds of males, who select advantageous
positions on the beach, and await the arrival of their partners. Nor
is the period of waiting an uneventful one. The best situations on
the beach are fought for with eagerness, not to say ferocity. The
descriptions given of the combats of the males indicate that they are
of the most sanguinary description; frequent mutilations being the
results of this fight for a place on the reception-ground.
On the arrival of the females, the younger males appear to do duty as
ushers, in marshalling the 'cows' to their places on the rocks and
cliffs above the beach; and the work of the selection of mates by the
males proceeds apace, until each happy family, consisting of a male
with a dozen or fifteen cows, has been duly constituted. The progress
of selection and sea-lion courtship is frequently, we regret to say,
attended with disastrous consequences to the lady-members of the
community. When a male, envious of the choice of his neighbour, sees
an opportunity, he does not hesitate to avail himself of the chance,
and not only to covet but literally to steal his neighbour's mate. The
desired 'cow' is unceremoniously lifted in the mouth of the captor, and
transferred with all possible expedition to his own family group. Great
is the sorrow of the bereaved male; but woe to both intruder and female
should the thief be discovered in the act! A fierce and sanguinary
fight ensues, and the hapless, passive, and altogether innocent cause
of the combat, may get dreadfully injured while the combat lasts.
The young sea-lions usually appear to be born almost immediately
after the parents have landed and been allocated to their respective
establishments. One young is produced at a birth; the infant sea-lion
being of black colour and attaining the length of a foot. When they
are four weeks old, they enter the water, and speedily become expert
in swimming and diving; but it is alleged, and on good authority, that
occasionally the females encounter refractory offspring, and have to
exercise great patience in coaxing unwilling youngsters to enter the
sea. The families have settled down to their wonted existence by the
beginning of August; and we are informed that during the whole of the
period which intervenes between the arrival of the females and the
period last mentioned, the males have not only been most assiduous in
their attendance upon their families, but that they have also been
existing independently of any nutriment. The males exemplify a case of
living upon self, and appear to subsist by the reabsorption of their
fatty matters; in the same fashion as the bears, which retire fat and
well nourished to their winter-quarters, and appear in the succeeding
spring in a lean and emaciated condition.
Regarding the sea-lions and their young at present in captivity in the
Brighton Aquarium, it is interesting to note the incidents connected
with the first 'bath' of baby _Otaria_. This prodigy in the way of an
aquarium specimen, tumbled accidentally into the water of his tank, and
apparently caused his mamma much anxiety. It is stated that he plunged
voluntarily into the water on a subsequent occasion, and appeared to
be perfectly at home in his native element; swimming and diving with
all the dexterity of an accomplished professor of the art of natation.
Being startled by some sound, the young otaria dived beneath the
surface of the water, the mother seizing her progeny by the neck, and
swimming ashore with it in her mouth. On the occasion of the writer's
visit to the Brighton Aquarium, the mother and young were disporting
themselves in the water; the male sitting up in the tank, and giving
vent to repeated sounds, resembling exactly the hoarse bark of a dog.
We may heartily re-echo the wish, that the happiness and amenity of
this interesting family may be disturbed by no untoward accident, if
for no other reason that they exist among us as the representatives of
a most interesting and now comparatively scarce group of quadrupeds.
It has often been disputed by naturalists whether or not the sea-lions
possess a mane. There can be no doubt that the old males of one
species at anyrate, the _Otaria jubata_ or Cook's sea-lion, the most
common form on the South American coasts, possess a mane on the neck
and shoulders. Nine or ten different species of sea-lions are known
to zoologists, these species being distinguished from each other by
very distinct variations in the form and structure of the skull, in
the fur, &c. It must, however, be borne in mind, that the recognition
of the exact species to which a sea-lion belongs is frequently a very
difficult matter, owing to the differences perceptible in the fur of
the two sexes and in the fur of either sex, at different ages.