"The one I saw was round; but I have seen pictures of whales in which the head was nearly square."
"How is it with the pout!"
"His mouth is about the widest part of him," laughed Alick Hartford.
"Take fishes in general, in what part of the body do you find the greatest girt?" asked the principal.
"Just astern of the head," replied Kit Burlington.
"In some fishes, about one third of the length from the mouth," added Bark Duxbury.
"Very good; you are about right, though some fishes vary from the general rule. Now don't you think Nature made a mistake, Leo Pownall, and that fishes ought to swim tail first instead of head first, as you would tow a log?"
"I suppose God made the fishes all right; but He gave some of them very sharp noses," returned the saw-mill owner's son.
"Corresponding to the shape of the butt of a log after it has been felled; but the greatest girt is still near the head. This is the general shape of the hull of a vessel."