10 Introduction 



absence of exact data it shall not be allowed to commit 

 indefensible extravagances, and that the stories as a 

 whole shall, if not stamped with the same hall-mark 

 of genius as the White Seal, at least endeavour to be 

 as readable in their degree. 



With this object before my eyes, I now essay a 

 series of lives of the Deep-Sea People based very 

 largely upon personal observation, buttressed by 

 scientific facts and decorated by imagination. I 

 well know how ambitious the task is, but I feel that 

 I have some small qualifications for the work, and I 

 know too how much room there is for a book of the 

 kind. A minor difficulty confronts me at the outset. 

 In justice the place of honour at the commencement 

 should — I felt, must — be given to the undoubted 

 Monarch of the Deep, the stupendous Whale. But 

 I have written so much, so exhaustively about him 

 (as a ship is ' she ' to sailors, so a whale is ' he ' to 

 whalers), that it must be impossible to avoid some 

 repetition (for which I trust I shall be forgiven) of 

 what I have published before. And it would naturally 

 appear as if I had deliberately chosen to place the 

 Whales first because of my personal predilection for 

 their gigantic company, and more extended acquaint- 

 ance with them as regards their every-day life. But 

 that is not so. I would gladly put a much smaller 

 denizen of the deep sea forward first if I might with 

 propriety do so. However, I feel that to be out of 

 tlie question, so the Whale comes first. 



Again, I beg to observe that this series of life- 

 histories will possess no orderly sequence of species 

 or genera. I intend to keep mammals, fish, and birds, 

 each in a section of their own, but apart from that, 

 I wish to keep the work as unlike an orthodox natural 

 history as it is possible to make it. Of necessity, 



