Page 139 - THE JUNGLE BOOK

The Jungle Book

few hours, and Kotick nearly bit off his mustache with
impatience till he saw that they were following up a warm
current of water, and then he respected them more.
One night they sank through the shiny water—sank

like stones—and for the first time since he had known
them began to swim quickly. Kotick followed, and the
pace astonished him, for he never dreamed that Sea Cow
was anything of a swimmer. They headed for a cliff by the
shore—a cliff that ran down into deep water, and plunged
into a dark hole at the foot of it, twenty fathoms under the
sea. It was a long, long swim, and Kotick badly wanted
fresh air before he was out of the dark tunnel they led him
through.
‘My wig!’ he said, when he rose, gasping and puffing,
into open water at the farther end. ‘It was a long dive, but
it was worth it.’
The sea cows had separated and were browsing lazily
along the edges of the finest beaches that Kotick had ever
seen. There were long stretches of smooth-worn rock
running for miles, exactly fitted to make seal-nurseries,
and there were play-grounds of hard sand sloping inland
behind them, and there were rollers for seals to dance in,
and long grass to roll in, and sand dunes to climb up and
down, and, best of all, Kotick knew by the feel of the

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