CHAPTER II 

 HOW A HUMPBACK DIVES AND SPOUTS 



ALTHOUGH it had been possible to secure but 

 few good pictures during my first trip at sea 

 on the Orion, nevertheless I had learned much 

 about the ways of humpbacks. One impression, which 

 I subsequently found to be correct, was that this would 

 prove to be the most interesting of all large whales 

 to study at least from the standpoint of its habits. 



There are no dull moments when one is hunting 

 a humpback, for it is never possible to foretell what 

 the animal's next move will be. He may dash along 

 the surface with his enormous mouth wide open, stand 

 upon his head and "lobtail," throwing up clouds of 

 spray with smashing blows of his flukes, or launch his 

 forty-ton body into the air as though shot from a 

 submarine catapult. 



He may do dozens of other highly original things, 

 all of which show his playful, good-natured disposi- 

 tion and, if he is allowed to continue his elephantine 

 gambols unmolested, he is as harmless as a puppy. 

 But once imbed an iron in his sensitive flesh and it is 

 wise to keep well beyond the range of his long flippers 

 and powerful flukes which strike the water in every 

 direction with deadly, crushing blows. 



The humpback is the whale which is most usually 



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