said Kotick . `` They 're killing all the holluschickie on all the beaches ! '' The Sea Lion turned his head inshore . `` Nonsense ! '' he said . `` Your friends are making as much noise as ever . You must have seen old Kerick polishing off a drove . He 's done that for thirty years . '' `` It 's horrible , '' said Kotick , backing water as a wave went over him , and steadying himself with a screw stroke of his flippers that brought him all standing within three inches of a jagged edge of rock . `` Well done for a yearling ! '' said the Sea Lion , who could appreciate good swimming . `` I suppose it is rather awful from your way of looking at it , but if you seals will come here year after year , of course the men get to know of it , and unless you can find an island where no men ever come you will always be driven . '' `` Is n't there any such island ? '' began Kotick . `` I 've followed the poltoos -LSB- the halibut -RSB- for twenty years , and I ca n't say I 've found it yet . But look here -- you seem to have a fondness for talking to your betters -- suppose you go to Walrus Islet and talk to Sea Vitch . He may know something . Do n't flounce off like that . It 's a six-mile swim , and if I were you I should haul out and take a nap first , little one . '' Kotick thought that that was good advice , so he swam round to his own beach , hauled out , and slept for half an hour , twitching all over , as seals will .
Then he headed straight for XXXXX Islet , a little low sheet of rocky island almost due northeast from Novastoshnah , all ledges and rock and gulls ' nests , where the walrus herded by themselves .
Nonsense Walrus beaches island men noise seals water wave way