Chapter 31, The Sea of Galilee Summary

Captain Laplace and the ship doctor discuss Rose. The doctor had pushed her corpse into the water, and a huge, shark-like animal snapped her up almost right away. The captain and the doctor then see the animal again, which vomits out the corpse and dies. The human body must be poisonous to the creature. Purser Frank Lee suggests that the propellant tanks be flooded to give ballast to Galaxy as it bobs on the ocean.

Chapter 31, The Sea of Galilee Analysis

Captain Laplace and the doctor make an important observation about the life on Europa. Humans can likely never join the food chain due to their poisonous affect on the native species. At this point, survival outweighs scientific inquiry, so the incident goes largely unnoticed, other than the sight of a giant shark with a...