234 The Under-Water World 



such a creature to a house room in which 

 at least twenty Jonahs could stand up- 

 right. The impossibility of the per- 

 formance has been urged on the ground 

 that the whale's gullet is too small. 

 Although certain species of whales have 

 comparatively small throats, the gullet 

 of the Sperm Whale is not only large 

 but distensible, and this, as the author 

 points out, is a question not of calculated 

 possibilities but of recorded facts. The 

 Sperm Whale may subsist on octopuses, 

 the bodies of which, often far larger 

 than that of a man, have been frequently 

 found whole in its stomach. There is 

 also a well established record of the 

 skeleton of a shark sixteen feet long 

 being found inside a Sperm Whale. 

 Therefore, while one may reasonably ques- 

 tion the prophet's survival after being 

 swallowed, there is no shadow of doubt 

 that certain whales could swallow a 

 human being with the greatest ease. 



