CONCLUSIONS, 529 
on the surface, and from this circumstance I conclude he did not 
swim deep’ (41), “we could trace his course under water’ (69), 
“swimming below the surface so that merely a stripe indicated the 
rapid course’ (117), “in swimming under the surface the animal 
swims not deeply, for on the surface one can trace its course’ 
(126), “and moved away just under the surface of the water, for 
we could trace its course by the waves it raised on the still sea” 
(137). 
This, however, is not always the case. The animal can swim so 
deep that its course is not betrayed on the surface. Once “it swum 
directly under a boat” in which two men were (41), and once 
“it passed below the boat at the depth of eight or ten feet, 
swimming slowly with a vermicular motion” (82), which shows us at 
the same time that it swims under water with vertical undulations. 
There is, of course, reason to believe that it may also occasionally 
swim with its body in a straight line; and Captain Hops saw it 
at still greater depths swimming evidently with its flappers and 
with vertical undulations (119). 
So we have gradually approached to the way in which the ani- 
mal disappears from the surface of the vaste ocean. In some instances 
it is only said that “it disappeared” (36), “it all at once vanished” 
(74), “it all at once disappeared” (74), “it suddenly disappeared” 
(132, 143, 155), evidently withdrawing itself beneath the surface 
of the water deep enough to avoid a rippling of it. In other in- 
stances the way how it disappeared is more circumstantially described : 
“it sank” (49, 60, 69, 117, 1387), “it sunk gradually into the 
water’ (63), “it sank quietly beneath the surface’ (134), “it sank 
rather abruptly” (137), “it sunk apparently down” (39), “he did 
not turn down like a fish, but appeared to settle down like a 
rock” (41), “he apparently sunk directly down like a rock” (41); 
this “sinking like a rock” is of course effectuated by a sudden 
upward movement of all the flappers together. But the animal 
may also plunge violently under water (31), or go down with a 
tremendous splash (157), or when it is swimming with its neck 
high elevated above the surface, it dives like a duck head foremost 
(124, 151), and finally, when it has apparently remained a long 
time under water in great depths, and suddenly comes to the 
surface with so much force that its head, long neck, and a part 
of its trunk with its formidable foreflappers become visible, it 
throws itself backwards, and in doing so, raises its enormous tail 
high above the surface of the water (5), and disappearing under 
34 
