paddle

Wait my coming, O most infamous Bandar-log!” He panted up the terrace only to disappear to the head in a wave of monkeys, but he threw himself squarely on his haunches, and, spreading out his forepaws, hugged as many as he could hold, and then began to hit with a regular bat-bat-bat, like the flipping strokes of a paddle wheel.

The phrase“mark twain” signified a depth of two fathoms, or twelve feet, indicating that the water was safely navigable for the paddle-wheelers.