1 6 Autobiography of a Sperm Whale 



to be alive and full of joy. Everything was new, 

 everything was entirely delightful. I was very soon 

 weaned, for among our people, the Sperm Whales, 

 there does not exist that intensity of maternal affection 

 which characterises the other kinds of whale, with only 

 one exception. We really do not need it, for food is 

 easy to obtain, and of a nature entirely fitted for a mere 

 baby to eat. So that when I was less than a month old 

 I had taken my place in the school as one of its ordinary 

 members, and my early relations with my mother were 

 entirely forgotten — in fact I knew no difference between 

 her and any other member of the school or family. But 

 during all that period I had been learning by closest 

 imitation, as well as by yielding to my strange inward 

 promptings impelling me to do that which I had never 

 done before, in emulation of the feats I saw being 

 performed by those around me, and when I became 

 independent I was, although quite an insignificant 

 member of the school, fully capable of doing all that 

 they did in respect of swimming, diving and obtaining 

 food. 



I am now getting old, the waves and storms of half 

 a century have rolled and thundered over my head, 

 but vividly as on that first day do I remember when by 

 my mother's side closely following her every movement 

 I sank into the cool, translucent, and darkling depths 

 for the first time. I shrank closely in to my mother's 

 bosom as we left the warm sunshine in which we had 

 been basking. I noticed with youthful wonder and 

 admiration the stately graceful way in which my mother 

 arched her back, lowered her head and elevated the 

 broad fans of her tail into the air as she descended, and 

 then all else was swallowed up in amazement. Slowly 

 we sank through the increasing coolness of the sea, 

 dimmer and dimmer grew the light from above, until, 



