The Orca
is probably the Thresher whale. Pliny thus describes it:--"The Balaena
(whale of some sort) penetrates to our seas even. It is said that they
are not to be seen in the ocean of Gades (Bay of Cadiz) before the
winter solstice, and that at periodical seasons they retire and conceal
themselves in some calm capacious bay, in which they take a delight in
bringing forth. This fact, however, is known to the Orca, an animal
wh
ch is particularly hostile to the Balaena, and the form of which
cannot be in any way accurately described, but as an enormous mass of
flesh, armed with teeth. This animal attacks the Balaena in its place of
retirement, and with its teeth tears its young, or else attacks the
females which have just brought forth, and, indeed, while they are still
pregnant; and, as they rush upon them, it pierces them just as though
they had been attacked by the beak of a Liburnian Galley. The female
Balaenae, devoid of all flexibility, without energy to defend themselves,
and overburdened by their own weight; weakened, too, by gestation, or
else the pains of recent parturition, are well aware that their only
resource is to take flight in the open sea, and to range over the whole
face of the ocean; while the Orcae, on the other hand, do all in their
power to meet them in their flight, throw themselves in their way, and
kill them either cooped up in a narrow passage, or else drive them on a
shoal, or dash them to pieces against the rocks. When these battles are
witnessed, it appears just as though the sea were infuriate against
itself; not a breath of wind is there to be felt in the bay, and yet the
waves, by their pantings and their repeated blows, are heaved aloft in a
way which no whirlwind could effect.
"An Orca has been seen even in the port of Ostia, where it was attacked
by the Emperor Claudius. It was while he was constructing the harbour
there that this orca came, attracted by some hides, which, having been
brought from Gaul, had happened to fall overboard there. By feeding
upon these for several days it had quite glutted itself, having made for
itself a channel in the shoaly water. Here, however, the sand was thrown
up by the action of the wind to such an extent that the creature found
it quite impossible to turn round; and while in the act of pursuing its
prey, it was propelled by the waves towards the shore, so that its back
came to be perceived above the level of the water, very much resembling
in appearance the keel of a vessel turned bottom upwards. Upon this,
Caesar ordered a number of nets to be extended at the mouth of the
harbour, from shore to shore, while he himself went there with the
Praetorian Cohorts, and so afforded a spectacle to the Roman people; for
boats assailed the monster, while the soldiers on board showered lances
upon it. I, myself, saw one of the boats sunk by the water which the
animal, as it respired, showered down upon it."
Olaus Magnus thus writes "Of the fight between the Whale and the Orca. A
Whale is a very great fish, about one hundred, or three hundred foot
long, and the body is of a vast magnitude, yet the Orca, which is
smaller in quantity, but more nimble to assault, and cruel to come on,
is his deadly Enemy. An Orca is like a Hull turned inwards outward; a
Beast with fierce Teeth, with which, as with the Stern of a Ship, he
rends the Whale's Guts, and tears its Calve's body open, or he quickly
runs and drives him up and down with his prickly back, that he makes him
run to Fords and Shores. But the Whale, that cannot turn its huge
body, not knowing how to resist the wily Orca, puts all its hopes in
flight; yet that flight is weak, because this sluggish Beast, burdned by
its own weight, wants one to guide her, to fly to the Foords, to escape
the dangers."