Study Questions
1. What lovely maiden did Perseus rescue from Leviathan?

2. How does Ishmael change the story of St. George and the Dragon?

3. What are the Vedas and who retrieved them?

4. What question did the old Sag-Harbor whaleman raise about Jonah’s surviving in the whale’s belly?

5. For what purpose is a pitchpole used?

6. What is the date of the writing of “The Fountain”?

7. How might a whale spout harm a man?

8. What is the length across a whale’s tail?

9. What is meant by “peaking”?

10. What are four other actions of the tail?

Answers
1. Perseus rescued Andromeda.

2. Ishmael says the dragon was a whale and St. George’s horse may have been a large seal or sea horse.

3. The sacred Hindu books were retrieved by Vishnu.

4. How could Jonah have survived in the gastric juices?

5. A pitchpole is used to weaken a harpooned whale that continues to swim very fast and may break free.

6. December 16, 1851 is the date of the writing.

7. The spout burns the skin and blinds the eyes.

8. A whale’s tail is 20 feet across.

9. Before a whale dives, he “tosses” his flukes and much of his body up into the air.

10. The tail also is used for propulsion, striking enemies, slapping the water, and gently sweeping from side to side.