"Flippers" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... are quite covered, the smooth rounded surface of the larger one presenting the appearance at a distance of a knoll dotted with dirty sheep. There is generally a select knot of a dozen floating about in the still water under the lee of the rock, bobbing up their tails and flippers very much as black driftwood might heave about in the tide. During certain parts of the day members of this community are off fishing in deep water; but what they like best to do is to crawl up on ...
— Baddeck and That Sort of Thing • Charles Dudley Warner
... so old that it was older than the great trees were, of monstrous things which swam along the shores and which were not serpents, though they had long necks and serpent heads, because they had great bodies which were driven by flippers through the water as the beaver goes with his broad feet. And at the same time, the old story goes, were great birds, far taller than a man, who fed where now the bustards and the capercailzie are. And these tales I do ...
— The Story of Ab - A Tale of the Time of the Cave Man • Stanley Waterloo
... until he is fat again. Niheu, left behind in the boat, sees his brother's feet growing fat, and finally cuts off one to remind Kana of the business in hand. Now the hill Haupu is really a turtle. Uli tells Kana that if he breaks the turtle's flippers it can no longer grow higher. Thus Kana succeeds in destroying the hill Haupu and winning Hina back to ...
— The Hawaiian Romance Of Laieikawai • Anonymous
... club them," I said, trying to reassure myself, and gazing doubtfully at a large bull, not thirty feet away, upreared on his fore-flippers and regarding me intently. "But the question is, ...
— The Sea-Wolf • Jack London
... true duck's bill, a downright horny beak, and its short paws sprawling sideways with a membrane joining the toes together below, and coming a good deal beyond them in front, seem intermediate between the flippers of the seal and the webbed feet of a water-bird. The first naturalist who had anything to do with the ornithorhynchus, Blumenbach the German, who gave it its pretty name, did not think it was able to suckle its young, so much did it differ from mammals in some respects, though looking so ...
— The History of a Mouthful of Bread - And its effect on the organization of men and animals • Jean Mace
... while yet wet and soft, we used to go upon them with our knives, and carefully cut of all the bad parts: the pieces of meat and fat, which would otherwise corrupt and affect the whole if stowed away in a vessel for months, the large flippers, the ears, and all other parts that prevent close stowage. This was the most difficult part of our duty, as it required much skill to take off everything necessary, and not to cut or injure the ...
— The Art of Travel - Shifts and Contrivances Available in Wild Countries • Francis Galton
... The turtle lays its eggs (generally between midnight and dawn) on the central and highest part of the plaias, or about a hundred feet from the shore. The Indians say it will lay only where itself was hatched out. With its hind flippers it digs a hole two or three feet deep, and deposits from eighty to one hundred and sixty eggs (Gibbon says from one hundred and fifty to two hundred). These are covered with sand, and the next comer makes another deposit on the ...
— The Andes and the Amazon - Across the Continent of South America • James Orton
... went home. Billy in his dress generally looked like a seal standing on his hind flippers, and Sammy resembled one also—nevertheless ...
— Connor Magan's Luck and Other Stories • M. T. W.
... Reptiles. The Crocodiles and Turtles of the swamps were not so very different from their modern descendants; there were also sea-crocodiles, sea-turtles, huge marine lizards (Mosasaurs) with flippers instead of feet; and another group of great marine reptiles (Plesiosaurs) somewhat like sea-turtles but with long neck and toothed jaws and without any carapace. These various kinds of sea-reptiles took the place of the great sea mammals of modern ...
— Dinosaurs - With Special Reference to the American Museum Collections • William Diller Matthew
... prototypes in functional respects and in details of structure. They are variously feelers, jaws, legs, pincers, and swimming paddles, evolved to serve different purposes, just as the limbs of the vertebrates we have described have become variously arms, wings, flippers and paddles in apes, bats, seals, ...
— The Doctrine of Evolution - Its Basis and Its Scope • Henry Edward Crampton
... paw," said a voice. "Lucky for ye it's not yer neck in a rope. Can't break the chain, can I, 'thout givin' ye a twist, ye fool! There it is now—right aft and on deck, Red, and follow me close! We'll git 'em off right enough when ye git above decks. What's matter if yer flippers ...
— The Devil's Admiral • Frederick Ferdinand Moore
... old salts—that their gallant, considerate young captain there in the stern-sheets, with the tiller-ropes in his hands, who steered so wildly about the harbor, had something more yielding than white-laced rope in his flippers; and that the sweet little craft under white dimity, with her head throwing off the sparkling spray as she lay under his bows, was in no hurry to go to sea—not caring much, either, to what port she was bound, ...
— Captain Brand of the "Centipede" • H. A. (Henry Augustus) Wise
... disturbed. This dissolute mistress and her slaves, with all valuable movable property, were compelled to flee before Sherman's victorious arms. Macon, a city just one hundred and three miles south-east of Atlanta, became the new home of the Flippers. A spacious dwelling was secured in West Macon. In a part of this was stored away Mrs. Ponder's plate and furniture, under the guardianship of Flipper, who with his family occupied the rest of the house. Here all was safe. The terrible fate of Atlanta was not extended to Macon. The only cause ...
— Henry Ossian Flipper, The Colored Cadet at West Point • Henry Ossian Flipper
... world over are against the harbour seals; and generally exaggerate their depredations, as they exaggerate the depredations of most kinds of seabirds. Whatever the fate of the harbour seals should be, there can be no doubt that the harps or Greenland seals, the bearded or square-flippers, the grey or horseheads, and the gigantic and magnificently game hoods, should all be put under conservation. I am also inclined to think that the walrus could be coaxed back to what once were some of his most favourite haunts. Just now he has no ...
— Draft of a Plan for Beginning Animal Sanctuaries in Labrador • William Wood
... flowersy-girl 'thout selling her doll? There's where I got your granny skinned a mile. I don't booze, and I never will. Mother hammered that into me. Now look what a pretty it is! You'll just love it! I wouldn't take it! I'd lay out anybody who would. Come on now! Negotiate it! Get your flippers ...
— Michael O'Halloran • Gene Stratton-Porter
... had been staked, and while yet wet and soft, we used to go upon them with our knives, and carefully cut off all the bad parts,— the pieces of meat and fat, which would corrupt and infect the whole if stowed away in a vessel for many months, the large flippers, the ears, and all other parts which would prevent close stowage. This was the most difficult part of our duty, as it required much skill to take off everything that ought to come off, and not to cut or injure the hide. It was also a long process, as six of us had to clean ...
— Two Years Before the Mast • Richard Henry Dana
... he promised. "You needn't worry about flippers. I have some in my pocket. And by the by," he added, glancing at the clock, "where is your other guest? It is ten minutes past eight, and I can ...
— Nobody's Man • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... seals bob out of the water to stare at them. Once they ran a race with a great white bear, and again they sighted a school of whales. They gave these a wide berth, for should they grow friendly and mix their great flippers with the sub's propeller, trouble would follow. Walrus, too, were avoided, for they had a playful habit of bumping the under-surface of any craft they ...
— Lost In The Air • Roy J. Snell
... surprised during his morning's nap. One of the amphibious Portuguese slipped over the boat's side as she neared the sleeping SPHARGA, and, diving deep, came up underneath him, seizing with crossed hands the two hind flippers, and, with a sudden, dexterous twist, turned the astonished creature over on his back. Thus rendered helpless, the turtle lay on the surface feebly waving his flippers, while his captor, gently treading water, held ...
— The Cruise of the Cachalot - Round the World After Sperm Whales • Frank T. Bullen
... any which may be concealed from her sight. Landing, she slowly crawls over the beach, raising her head, until she has found a suitable place for depositing her eggs. She then at once forms a hollow in the sand by shovelling it out from beneath her, first by her hind flippers, then with her fore ones, until a hollow has been dug nearly two feet in length. This operation she performs in about nine minutes. Having deposited her eggs in regular layers, which occupies about twenty minutes, she scrapes the sand over them, and then smooths the surface, so that any one ...
— In the Wilds of Florida - A Tale of Warfare and Hunting • W.H.G. Kingston
... limited extent, owing to the tendency of any swinging weight in a vessel to aggravate the rolling during heavy weather. Some tentative schemes have been put forward for tapping a source of wave-power by providing a vessel with flippers, resting upon the surface of the water outside her hull, and actuating suitable internal machinery with the object of propulsion. A certain amount of encouragement has been given by the performances of small craft fitted in this way; ...
— Twentieth Century Inventions - A Forecast • George Sutherland
... turtle tracks in the sand. He followed them, for he liked to watch the big clumsy creatures. These green turtles were from four to five feet in length. They would come waddling up from the sea, scratch a hole in the sand with their flippers, lay their eggs, cover them carefully, and with head erect and neck out-thrust waddle back. Mackay was intensely interested in all the animal life of the island and made a study of it whenever he had a chance. He knew the savages killed and ate these turtles, but he supposed ...
— The Black-Bearded Barbarian (George Leslie Mackay) • Mary Esther Miller MacGregor, AKA Marion Keith
... takes out a pair o' gloves, shoves his fingers into 'em, and tails on to the rope behind. "Well, dammit!" says the mate, "if I ever see the likes o' that! Jacobs, get a tarbucket and dip his fists in it; larn him what his hands was made for! I never could bear to see a fellow ashore with his flippers shoed like his feet; but at sea, confound me, it would make a man green-sick over again!" If you'd only seen how Master Collins looked when shoved his missy fingers into the tar, and chucked the gloves ...
— The International Monthly Magazine, Volume 1, No. 1, August 1850 - of Literature, Science and Art. • Various |
