Locomotion and Locomotory Organs 



' 11 ^^ OLPHINS AHEAD 



I ]l not been enticed to 

 11- ^ rails as he watche; 



. What passenger on an ocean Hner has 

 to the deck by this cry, to hang eagerly over the 

 ;hes the animals' graceful play? Generally, what 

 he sees is a small school of five to ten Common Dolphins, though in 

 tropical waters he might see other species as well. The dolphins usually 

 swim ahead of the ship, or sometimes alongside, but never in the ship's 

 wake. Unlike sharks, which follow ocean liners for their refuse, dolphins 

 merely come up to play, sometimes jumping right out of the water, 

 darting across the bow waves and even diving under the ship. They are 

 not covetous and never beg. On the contrary, they are the envoys of 

 Neptune, the God of the Sea, and as such they accompany the ship and 

 see it safe to harbour. 



Not only dolphins, but large whales, too, are sometimes inquisitive 

 enough to come close to a ship so that they can investigate the interloper 

 from all sides and even from underneath. When they do (Fig. 72), 

 passengers and crew are given a wonderful opportunity of observing their 

 aquatic skills and particularly their method of surfacing, which is rather 

 important to whalers, for from the small part of the body protruding 

 above the water, and even from the way it surfaces, they must be able to 

 tell to what species it belongs. The method of surfacing may, however, 

 alter with the animal's speed. Thus, when a Fin Whale is swimming 

 slowly, it generally surfaces almost horizontally (Figs. 32 and 51). The 

 l)lowhole comes up first, then a small section of the back, followed by the 

 dorsal fin, and then our whale is gone again, almost in the same way it 

 came up. But whenever a Fin Whale is swimming quickly, it surfaces at 

 an angle, snout breaking water first (Fig. 73), curves its body to display a 

 great deal of the back and tail (Fig. 53), and then dives down again at an 

 angle (Fig. 54) . Gunners much prefer the whale to come up this way, for 

 if it does, it offers a much larger tai'get area than when it surfaces hori- 

 zontally. 



93 



