`` Who in the Deep Sea are these people ? '' They were like no walrus , sea lion , seal , bear , whale , shark , fish , squid , or scallop that Kotick had ever seen before . They were between twenty and thirty feet long , and they had no hind flippers , but a shovel-like tail that looked as if it had been whittled out of wet leather . Their heads were the most foolish-looking things you ever saw , and they balanced on the ends of their tails in deep water when they were n't grazing , bowing solemnly to each other and waving their front flippers as a fat man waves his arm . `` Ahem ! '' said Kotick . `` Good sport , gentlemen ? '' The big things answered by bowing and waving their flippers like the Frog Footman . When they began feeding again Kotick saw that their upper lip was split into two pieces that they could twitch apart about a foot and bring together again with a whole bushel of seaweed between the splits . They tucked the stuff into their mouths and chumped solemnly . `` Messy style of feeding , that , '' said Kotick . They bowed again , and Kotick began to lose his temper . `` Very good , '' he said . `` If you do happen to have an extra joint in your front flipper you need n't show off so . I see you bow gracefully , but I should like to know your names . '' The split lips moved and twitched ; and the glassy green eyes stared , but they did not speak . `` Well ! '' said Kotick . `` You 're the only people I 've ever met uglier than Sea Vitch -- and with worse manners . '' Then he remembered in a flash what the Burgomaster gull had screamed to him when he was a little yearling at Walrus Islet , and he tumbled backward in the water , for he knew that he had found Sea Cow at last .
The sea cows went on schlooping and grazing and chumping in the weed , and XXXXX asked them questions in every language that he had picked up in his travels ; and the Sea People talk nearly as many languages as human beings .
Burgomaster Cow Islet Kotick Vitch flipper scallop shark squid whale