Then the green shiny mass appeared spouting furiously and darting to and fro as though fighting with some formidable enemy.
"If it was driven in here by whalers," I said to myself, "there must be a vessel in proximity to Back Cup--peradventure within a stone's throw of it.

Her boats must have entered the western passes to the very foot of the mountain.

And to think I am unable to communicate with them! But even if I could, I fail to see how I could go to them through these massive walls." I soon found, however, that it was not fishers, but sharks that had driven the whale through the tunnel, and which infest these waters in great numbers.

I could see them plainly as they darted about, turning upon their backs and displaying their enormous mouths which were bristling with their cruel teeth.

There were five or six of the monsters, and they attacked the whale with great viciousness.