Page 122 - THE JUNGLE BOOK

The Jungle Book

Whale, the Grampus, who eats young seals when he can
get them; and Kotick would head for the beach like an
arrow, and the fin would jig off slowly, as if it were
looking for nothing at all.

Late in October the seals began to leave St. Paul’s for
the deep sea, by families and tribes, and there was no more
fighting over the nurseries, and the holluschickie played
anywhere they liked. ‘Next year,’ said Matkah to Kotick,
‘you will be a holluschickie; but this year you must learn
how to catch fish.’
They set out together across the Pacific, and Matkah
showed Kotick how to sleep on his back with his flippers
tucked down by his side and his little nose just out of the
water. No cradle is so comfortable as the long, rocking
swell of the Pacific. When Kotick felt his skin tingle all
over, Matkah told him he was learning the ‘feel of the
water,’ and that tingly, prickly feelings meant bad weather
coming, and he must swim hard and get away.
‘In a little time,’ she said, ‘you’ll know where to swim
to, but just now we’ll follow Sea Pig, the Porpoise, for he
is very wise.’ A school of porpoises were ducking and
tearing through the water, and little Kotick followed them
as fast as he could. ‘How do you know where to go to?’
he panted. The leader of the school rolled his white eye

121 of 241