Whales as the Whalers Knew Them 163 



too busy with blubber already taken to lower 

 in pursuit. Of one thing they did, he says: 



"As if instigated by one common impulse 

 they all elevated their massive heads above the 

 sea and remained for some time in that position, 

 solemnly bobbing up and down amid the glitter- 

 ing wavelets like moveable boulders of black 

 rock. Then all suddenly reversed themselves 

 and, elevating their broad flukes in the air, com- 

 menced to beat them slowly and rhythmically 

 upon the water, like so many machines." 



It is supposed that whales may have been 

 animals not wholly unlike the flat-tailed beaver; 

 that, like beavers, they sat up or rose up on their 

 haunches to look around when danger seemed 

 to impend; also when they saw anything that 

 excited their curiosity; and, finally, that in the 

 course of the evolution of the race the hind legs 

 were eliminated and the tail was developed into 

 the form now seen. 



Of hind legs the whales have not a trace. 

 From their lungs to the tips of their tails, whales 

 are very good fish, and yet the whales differ from 

 all fish in the position of their flukes. 



