"Poor fellow," said the Private Secretary, "he thinks, as you do, that
we are not going very fast. See him perspire! I can tell him now that he
might as well drop behind, for the Gee-Whiz Submarine Express is much
the fastest thing that swims the deep."
"But what is that out there, mamma?" cried Zuzu, whose nose was pressed
flat against the glass.
"That," said the Widow Pickle, "is something so strange that I have not
the slightest idea what it may be."
"It is a Flying Nautilus," explained the Private Secretary, "a very
beautiful creature, which has wings like sails, but it can not sail with
us; and yonder, I see, is a Goroo; but even the Goroo will find that we
go too fast for it."
The Goroo now swam alongside for some time. It was a long, slender
monster, with a body something like that of a snake and a long, tapering
head, from which two horns arose and fell back gracefully over its
shoulders. Its eyes were very large and prominent, and it had four or
five fierce whiskers on each side of its mouth, all of which were bright
pink in color. It had twelve fins along its back, which enabled it to
swim very rapidly indeed.
"The Goroo," said the Private Secretary, "is often by mortals called a
sea-serpent, and this fact causes us who live in Gee-Whiz considerable
amusement, because we know that it is not a sea-serpent, but a Goroo. It
would eat a man if it had a chance, but it can not harm us so long as we
are in the boat.
"See," he continued, "that short fat-looking animal we have just passed
is a Calabite, a very rare and odd fish, which lives entirely upon fresh
oysters. It cracks the oyster shells with its long teeth, just as you do
hazelnuts, and it eats so many that often fishermen wonder where all
their oysters have gone. If the truth were known, it would very probably
be found a Calabite had eaten them.
"That large creature with a long mane and six legs on each side," he
resumed, "is a Talapud, a creature never seen in any menagerie, so far
as I know. It can travel very fast indeed, but though it has six legs on
each side, it is very lazy, so that it rarely exerts its full speed. We
shall, no doubt, pass it easily.
"There, also, is a Naugalook, that bird-like thing, which also swims
with wings instead of fins. As you see, it has a very wide and cruel
beak, and many a fish it eats each year. It is the eagle of the sea, and
very dangerous to meet unarmed, on account of its great size and
ferocity.
"The Waugog, as you may observe, is a sort of turtle. There are two just
coming out of their holes; stupid things, who think of nothing but
eating, and can travel scarcely faster than a turtle upon the land. A
full-grown Waugog is as large as a church, and should we run against one
at full speed, it would jar the boat very much. You will see, madam,
that travel underneath the sea is not without interest."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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