Moby Dick; Or, The Whale
Page 76
CHAPTER 76
The Battering-Ram
Ere quitting, for the nonce, the Sperm Whale's head, I would have you,as a sensible physiologist, simply--particularly remark its front aspect,in all its compacted collectedness. I would have you investigate itnow with the sole view of forming to yourself some unexaggerated,intelligent estimate of whatever battering-ram power may be lodged there.Here is a vital point; for you must either satisfactorily settlethis matter with yourself, or for ever remain an infidel as to oneof the most appalling, but not the less true events, perhaps anywhereto be found in all recorded history.
You observe that in the ordinary swimming position of the Sperm Whale,the front of his head presents an almost wholly vertical planeto the water; you observe that the lower part of that frontslopes considerably backwards, so as to furnish more of a retreatfor the long socket which receives the boom-like lower jaw;you observe that the mouth is entirely under the head,much in the same way, indeed, as though your own mouth wereentirely under your chin. Moreover you observe that the whalehas no external nose; and that what nose he has--his spout hole--is on the top of his head; you observe that his eyes and earsare at the sides of his head; nearly one third of his entirelength from the front. Wherefore, you must now have perceivedthat the front of the Sperm Whale's head is a dead, blind wall,without a single organ or tender prominence of any sort whatsoever.Furthermore, you are now to consider that only in the extreme,lower, backward sloping part of the front of the head, is therethe slightest vestige of bone; and not till you get near twenty feetfrom the forehead do you come to the full cranial development.So that this whole enormous boneless mass is as one wad.Finally, though, as will soon be revealed, its contents partlycomprise the most delicate oil; yet, you are now to be apprisedof the nature of the substance which so impregnably invests allthat apparent effeminacy. In some previous place I have describedto you how the blubber wraps the body of the whale, as the rindwraps an orange. Just so with the head; but with this difference:about the head this envelope, though not so thick is of aboneless toughness, inestimable by any man who has not handled it.The severest pointed harpoon, the sharpest lance dartedby the strongest human arm, impotently rebounds from it.It is as though the forehead of the Sperm Whale were pavedwith horses' hoofs. I do not think that any sensation lurks in it.
Bethink yourself also of another thing. When two large,loaded Indian-men chance to crowd and crush towards each otherin the docks, what do the sailors do? They do not suspendbetween them, at the point of coming contact, any merelyhard substance, like iron or wood. No, they hold there a large,round wad of tow and cork, enveloped in the thickest and toughestof ox-hide. That bravely and uninjured takes the jam which wouldhave snapped all their oaken handspikes and iron crow-bars. Byitself this sufficiently illustrates the obvious fact I drive at.But supplementary to this, it has hypothetically occurred to me,that as ordinary fish possess what is called a swimming bladderin them, capable, at will, of distension or contraction;and as the Sperm Whale, as far as I know, has no such provisionin him; considering, too, the otherwise inexplicable mannerin which he now depresses his head altogether beneath the surface,and anon swims with it high elevated out of the water;considering the unobstructed elasticity of its envelope;considering the unique interior of his head; it hashypothetically occurred to me, I say, that those mysticallung-celled honeycombs there may possibly have some hithertounknown and unsuspected connexion with the outer air, so asto be susceptible to atmospheric distension and contraction.If this be so, fancy the irresistibleness of that might, to whichthe most impalpable and destructive of all elements contributes.
Now, mark. Unerringly impelling this dead, impregnable, uninjurable wall,and this most buoyant thing within; there swims behind it all a massof tremendous life, only to be adequately estimated as piled wood is--by the cord; and all obedient to one volition, as the smallest insect.So that when I shall hereafter detail to you all the specialities andconcentrations of potency everywhere lurking in this expansive monster;when I shall show you some of his more inconsiderable braining feats;I trust you will have renounced all ignorant incredulity, and be readyto abide by this; that though the Sperm Whale stove a passage throughthe Isthmus of Darien, and mixed the Atlantic with the Pacific, you wouldnot elevate one hair of your eye-brow. For unless you own the whale,you are but a provincial and sentimentalist in Truth. But clearTruth is a thing for salamander giants only to encounter; how smallthe chances for the provincials then? What befell the weakling youthlifting the dread goddess's veil at Lais?
CHAPTER 77
The Great Heidelburgh Tun