“If master says so,” Conseil replied.
“Which means,” the Canadian went on, “since I’ve never fished these waterways, I don’t know the whales that frequent them?”
“That’s what I’ve been telling you, Ned.”
“All the more reason to get to know them,” Conseil answered.
“Look! Look!” the Canadian exclaimed, his voice full of excitement. “It’s approaching! It’s coming toward us! It’s thumbing its nose at me! It knows I can’t do a blessed thing to it!”
Ned stamped his foot. Brandishing an imaginary harpoon, his hands positively trembled.
“These cetaceans,” he asked, “are they as big as the ones in the northernmost seas?”
“Pretty nearly, Ned.”
“Because I’ve seen big baleen whales, sir, whales measuring up to 100 feet long! I’ve even heard that those rorqual whales off the Aleutian Islands sometimes get over 150 feet.”
“That strikes me as exaggerated,” I replied. “Those animals are only members of the genus Balaenoptera furnished with dorsal fins, and like sperm whales, they’re generally smaller than the bowhead whale.”