Of course, injuries
to men do not count. Had that finback attempted to play about a
passenger ship in such a fashion, all the loungers on board would
have been popping at him with their revolvers and rifles without
ever a thought of compunction; yet here, in a vessel whose errand
was whale-fishing, a whale enjoyed perfect immunity. It was very
puzzling. At last my curiosity became too great to hear any
longer, and I sought my friend Mistah Jones at what I considered
a favourable opportunity. I found him very gracious and
communicative, and I got such a lecture on the natural history of
the cetacea as I have never forgotten--the outcome of a quarter-
century's experience of them, and afterwards proved by me to be
correct in every detail, which latter is a great deal more than
can be said of any written natural history that ever I came
across. But I will not go into that now. Leaning over the rail,
with the great rorqual laying perfectly still a few feet below, I
was told to mark how slender and elegant were his proportions.
"Clipper-built," my Mentor termed him. He was full seventy feet
long, but his greatest diameter would not reach ten feet. His
snout was long and pointed, while both top and bottom of his head
were nearly flat.
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