14 Autobiography of a Sperm Whale 



glowing breadths of colour ever changing in obedience 

 to some mysterious law. I lay, happiest of the happy, 

 by my mother's side, my blunt nose protruding from 

 the water about a foot, the teat in the angle of my jaw, 

 in which the immature teeth were just sprouting, and 

 the rich milk streaming sweetly down my throat quite 

 unmixed with any sea-water. You see, we have a 

 most exquisite contrivance in our gullets, which without 

 any effort on our parts, takes in the food and shuts out 

 the sea, even at enormous depths. But just how it 

 does it I cannot explain, nor do I think that anybody 

 can. I looked a queer Httle creature, with my head, 

 the biggest part of me, like a tadpole's, and my long 

 thin lower jaw sticking out in front of me almost as if 

 a big splinter had run into my face and remained there. 

 But my mother did not think so ; she was very proud 

 of me, and we both lay upon our beautiful couch, 

 supremely happy. 



All around us lay the rest of the school, thirty or 

 forty cows, eight or ten young bulls, and father. Ah, 

 never shall I forget when I saw him first. He was 

 going round the family to see that all weis well, as he 

 did some six times a day, and he passed quite close to 

 where I nestled at my mother's side. He was one of 

 the mightiest of our mighty race, w^ith a head like a 

 promontory and a length of over seventy feet. And 

 as he surged slowly up behind me on the surface of the 

 quiet sea, I saw the whole of him clearly and trembled. 

 (You must understand that we can only see behind us 

 owing to the position of our eyes, which are placed a 

 little below where the shoulders are in a man and almost 

 in the middle of the body's breadth.) He just glanced 

 at me as he glided by, a glance as it seemed to me of 

 perfect satisfaction. My mother quivered with delight, 

 as, sheering in towards her, he touched his forehead to 



