BLUBBER AND SONG 201 



sea swallowed them up and we did not see them 

 again. A little later we caught a glimpse of 

 their fountains twinkling against the sky on the 

 far horizon. 



Mr. Winchester's whale was wriggling about 

 among the jellyfish with jaws widely distended 

 when the boat slipped silently upon it. As the 

 prow bumped against its black skin, Long John 

 drove a harpoon up to the hitches in its back. 

 .With a tonite bomb shattered in its vitals, the 

 monster sounded in a smother of foam. In the 

 dynamic violence with which it got under way 

 it literally stood on its head. Its flukes, easily 

 twenty feet from tip to tip, shot at least thirty 

 feet into the air. They swung over to one side, 

 the great body forming a high arch, and struck 

 the sea with a resounding smack. Then they 

 sailed on high again to come down on the other 

 side with another broadside smash. Again they 

 rose like lightning into the air and the whale 

 seemed to slip down perpendicularly into the 

 ocean. 



It was evident at the outset that the animal 

 was badly wounded. It swam only a short dis- 



