`` Why do n't you come too ? '' asked Tom . But the mollys only wailed sadly , `` We ca n't go yet , we ca n't go yet , '' and flew away over the pack . So Tom dived under the great white gate which never was opened yet , and went on in black darkness , at the bottom of the sea , for seven days and seven nights . And yet he was not a bit frightened . Why should he be ? He was a brave English lad , whose business is to go out and see all the world . And at last he saw the light , and clear clear water overhead ; and up he came a thousand fathoms , among clouds of sea-moths , which fluttered round his head . There were moths with pink heads and wings and opal bodies , that flapped about slowly ; moths with brown wings that flapped about quickly ; yellow shrimps that hopped and skipped most quickly of all ; and jellies of all the colours in the world , that neither hopped nor skipped , but only dawdled and yawned , and would not get out of his way . The dog snapped at them till his jaws were tired ; but Tom hardly minded them at all , he was so eager to get to the top of the water , and see the pool where the good whales go . And a very large pool it was , miles and miles across , though the air was so clear that the ice cliffs on the opposite side looked as if they were close at hand . All round it the ice cliffs rose , in walls and spires and battlements , and caves and bridges , and stories and galleries , in which the ice-fairies live , and drive away the storms and clouds , that Mother Carey 's pool may lie calm from year 's end to year 's end . And the sun acted policeman , and walked round outside every day , peeping just over the top of the ice wall , to see that all went right ; and now and then he played conjuring tricks , or had an exhibition of fireworks , to amuse the ice-fairies . For he would make himself into four or five suns at once , or paint the sky with rings and crosses and crescents of white fire , and stick himself in the middle of them , and wink at the fairies ; and I daresay they were very much amused ; for anything 's fun in the country . And there the good whales lay , the happy sleepy beasts , upon the still oily sea . They were all right whales , you must know , and finners , and razor-backs , and bottle-noses , and spotted sea - unicorns with long ivory horns . But the sperm whales are such raging , ramping , roaring , rumbustious fellows , that , if Mother Carey let them in , there would be no more peace in Peacepool . So she packs them away in a great pond by themselves at the South Pole , two hundred and sixty-three miles south-south-east of Mount Erebus , the great volcano in the ice ; and there they butt each other with their ugly noses , day and night from year 's end to year 's end . But here there were only good quiet beasts , lying about like the black hulls of sloops , and blowing every now and then jets of white steam , or sculling round with their huge mouths open , for the sea - moths to swim down their throats . There were no threshers there to thresh their poor old backs , or sword-fish to stab their stomachs , or saw-fish to rip them up , or ice-sharks to bite lumps out of their sides , or whalers to harpoon and lance them .
They were quite safe and happy there ; and all they had to do was to wait quietly XXXXX Peacepool , till Mother Carey sent for them to make them out of old beasts into new .
For So from in into over that though till up