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A Whale’s Tail

The only way a man can get ahead in life is to use his head, but not so with a whale. A whale’s tail, unlike the vertical tail of a fish is horizontal.

The fins or “flippers” (flukes) of a whale are used by it only to keep its balance so that it will not roll over and over helplessly, or pitch up and down without control. So the only way the whale can get ahead in life is to use its tail, and this in fact is what the whale does. To go places, the whale propels itself with its tail. The whale has no bones in its tail, either, and thus differs again from a fish.

In the long ago days of whaling, the whale was known, on many occasions, to use its tail to smash whale boats. One hearty blow well placed by the whale usually sufficed to crush a whale boat and bring peril and even death to the men in it.

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