32 Autobiography of a Sperm Whale 



a long time they are mere nobodies. They are of the 

 family, but have nothing to do with it but obey the 

 lead of the chief. All the privileges of his leadership 

 are theirs, also the lore which he has accumulated 

 gradually passes to them as they follow him about the 

 oceans of the world. They cannot help learning, for 

 imitation is one of the primary laws of their being, which 

 they can no more disobey than they can help feeling 

 hungry. And all they have to do is to eat and grow ; 

 love affairs do not trouble them until they are full- 

 grown. Then, when instinct compels them to cast 

 amorous glances upon the young cows of about their 

 own age, another instinct warns them that before love 

 must come war. And so it comes to pass that at a 

 certain period in the life of the school there are furious 

 battles between the young bulls, battles that sometimes 

 result in the death of one or both of the combatants, 

 and sometimes in that terrible disablement and dis- 

 figurement known as twisted jaw, where the bone of the 

 long mandible-like lower jaw is wrenched to one side, 

 at right angles to the line of the body. Then the 

 sufferer is thrust out of the school, never again to know 

 the fellowship of his kind, but to wander unsatisfied 

 and lonely until his life's end. The victor in the battle, 

 upon which the great chief of the school looks gravely 

 and with perfect impartiality, may then form a school 

 of his own. He proudly selects for himself wives from 

 among the young cows and departs to use for himself 

 the wisdom he has learned during his adolescence. 



So the making of new families goes on until finally 

 there arises a young bull who, seeing that the leader is 

 not so fierce or so agile as of old, feels called upon to 

 put his headship to the test and haply succeed in driving 

 him from his place and filling the same himself more 

 efl&ciently. Then a tremendous fight ensues, lasting 



