26 Autobiography of a Sperm Whale 



the monstrous rollers of the Southern Ocean hurled 

 themselves vainly, retiring sullenly in clouds of spray 

 and leagues of foam. It was a place of strife farthest 

 removed from the languorous peace of our last resting- 

 place that one could possibly imagine, yet inexpressibly 

 grateful to me, who felt in all my members the need 

 for vigorous action. This stem sea, those chill winds 

 that howled over the whitening expanse of waters, 

 sent the life bounding through my arteries, and I felt 

 myself growing with abnormal rapidity, longing to test 

 my strength, eager to fight. 



Up out of the boiling foam there sprang a mighty 

 mountain top, a pinnacle of rock that, reaching down 

 into the darkening depths of that stem ocean, soared 

 into the air as far again. And around it we circled 

 feeding, for here food was even more abundant than 

 within the Bab-el-Mandeb, my only standard of com- 

 parison. The storm raged higher and higher, the great 

 waves hurled themselves headlong from their world- 

 encircling journey against the mountain base and 

 whitened its summit with spray, but still, all unheeding 

 their strife, we made our rounds feeding, ever feeding. 

 For we had only to sink a few yards to be in profoundest 

 peace, no tumult of wind and sea affected us, except 

 favourably, in that the agitation of the whole oceanic 

 mass in these comparatively shallow waters stirred up 

 the creatures upon which we fed and made them 

 easier to obtain. Gradually it dawned upon me that 

 our ranks were being augmented by many strangers. 

 Whales I had certainly never seen before nibbed 

 shoulders with me, but communicated no sign. Until 

 when the next morning broke bleakly and cheerless 

 over the foaming surface of the straits there were 

 hundreds of our kind gathered, as if at some pre- 

 arranged rendezvous for some definite purpose, I 



