I see you reading often , and you seem a sensible child . '' `` No : I have n't read about you yet , and I only know that you are the biggest fish there is , '' replied Freddy . The bone creaked and shook , as if it was laughing , and said in a tone that showed it had n't got over its pride yet : `` You 're wrong there , my dear ; we are not fishes at all , though stupid mortals have called us so for a long time . We ca n't live without air ; we have warm , red blood ; and we do n't lay eggs , -- so we are not fishes . We certainly are the biggest creatures in the sea and out of it . Why , bless you ! some of us are nearly a hundred feet long ; our tails alone are fifteen or twenty feet wide ; the biggest of us weigh five hundred thousand pounds , and have in them the fat , bone , and muscle of a thousand cattle . The lower jaw of one of my family made an arch large enough for a man on horseback to ride under easily , and my cousins of the sperm-family usually yield eighty barrels of oil . '' `` Gracious me , what monsters you are ! '' cried Freddy , taking a long breath , while his eyes got bigger and bigger as he listened . `` Ah ! you may well say so ; we are a very wonderful and interesting family . All our branches are famous in one way or another . Fin-backs , sperms , and rights are the largest ; then come the norwhals , the dolphins , and porpoises , -- which last , I dare say , you 've seen . '' `` Yes : but tell me about the big ones , please . Which were you ? '' cried Freddy . `` I was a Right whale , from Greenland . The Sperms live in warm places ; but to us the torrid zone is like a sea of fire , and we do n't pass it . Our cousins do ; and go to the East Indies by way of the North Pole , which is more than your famous Parrys and Franklins could do . ''
`` I do n't know about that ; but I 'd like to hear what you eat , and how you live , and why you came here , '' said Freddy , who thought the XXXXX rather inclined to boast .
Franklins Freddy Indies Parrys Pole Sperms fire norwhals pounds whale