Moby Dick; Or, The Whale

by Herman Melville

  Now comes the Baling of the Case. But to comprehend it aright,you must know something of the curious internal structureof the thing operated upon.

  Regarding the Sperm Whale's head as a solid oblong, you may,on an inclined plane, sideways divide it into two quoins,* whereofthe lower is the bony structure, forming the cranium and jaws,and the upper an unctuous mass wholly free from bones; its broad forwardend forming the expanded vertical apparent forehead of the whale.At the middle of the forehead horizontally subdivide this upper quoin,and then you have two almost equal parts, which before were naturallydivided by an internal wall of a thick tendinous substance.

  *Quoin is not a Euclidean term. It belongs to the purenautical mathematics. I know not that it has been defined before.A quoin is a solid which differs from a wedge in havingits sharp end formed by the steep inclination of one side,instead of the mutual tapering of both sides.

  The lower subdivided part, called the junk, is one immensehoneycomb of oil, formed by the crossing and recrossing,into ten thousand infiltrated cells, of tough elastic white fibresthroughout its whole extent. The upper part, known as the Case,may be regarded as the great Heidelburgh Tun of the Sperm Whale.And as that famous great tierce is mystically carved in front,so the whale's vast plaited forehead forms innumerable strangedevices for the emblematical adornment of his wondrous tun.Moreover, as that of Heidelburgh was always replenishedwith the most excellent of the wines of the Rhenish valleys,so the tun of the whale contains by far the most preciousof all his oily vintages; namely, the highly-prized spermaceti,in its absolutely pure, limpid, and odoriferous state.Nor is this precious substance found unalloyed in any other partof the creature. Though in life it remains perfectly fluid,yet, upon exposure to the air, after death, it soon beginsto concrete; sending forth beautiful crystalline shoots,as when the first thin delicate ice is just forming in water.A large whale's case generally yields about five hundredgallons of sperm, though from unavoidable circumstances,considerable of it is spilled, leaks, and dribbles away,or is otherwise irrevocably lost in the ticklish businessof securing what you can.

  I know not with what fine and costly material the Heidelburgh Tunwas coated within, but in superlative richness that coating couldnot possibly have compared with the silken pearl-colored membrane,like the lining of a fine pelisse, forming the inner surfaceof the Sperm Whale's case.

  It will have been seen that the Heidelburgh Tun of the Sperm Whaleembraces the entire length of the entire top of the head;and since--as has been elsewhere set forth--the head embracesone third of the whole length of the creature, then settingthat length down at eighty feet for a good sized whale,you have more than twenty-six feet for the depth of the tun,when it is lengthwise hoisted up and down against a ship's side.

  As in decapitating the whale, the operator's instrument isbrought close to the spot where an entrance is subsequentlyforced into the spermaceti magazine; he has, therefore, to beuncommonly heedful, lest a careless, untimely stroke should invadethe sanctuary and wastingly let out its invaluable contents.It is this decapitated end of the head, also, which is atlast elevated out of the water, and retained in that positionby the enormous cutting tackles, whose hempen combinations,on one side, make quite a wilderness of ropes in that quarter.

  Thus much being said, attend now, I pray you, to that marvellous and--in this particular instance--almost fatal operation wherebythe Sperm Whale's great Heidelburgh Tun is tapped.