{"id":"01KFNR871AHXMFKFNQHDFRXZFE","cid":"bafkreif7na6c2hid55g2abc3drdd6nivlamxb54gxkuce3uyvvnltcz2cu","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":5826,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:01.929Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 4","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":5786,"text":"in all their grand features; nor has there yet been presented a single\r\ndeterminate fact upon which to ground a radical distinction. It is by\r\nendless subdivisions based upon the most inconclusive differences, that\r\nsome departments of natural history become so repellingly intricate.\r\nThe right whale will be elsewhere treated of at some length, with\r\nreference to elucidating the sperm whale.\r\n\r\nBOOK I. (_Folio_), CHAPTER III. (_Fin-Back_).—Under this head I reckon\r\na monster which, by the various names of Fin-Back, Tall-Spout, and\r\nLong-John, has been seen almost in every sea and is commonly the whale\r\nwhose distant jet is so often descried by passengers crossing the\r\nAtlantic, in the New York packet-tracks. In the length he attains, and\r\nin his baleen, the Fin-back resembles the right whale, but is of a less\r\nportly girth, and a lighter colour, approaching to olive. His great\r\nlips present a cable-like aspect, formed by the intertwisting, slanting\r\nfolds of large wrinkles. His grand distinguishing feature, the fin,\r\nfrom which he derives his name, is often a conspicuous object. This fin\r\nis some three or four feet long, growing vertically from the hinder\r\npart of the back, of an angular shape, and with a very sharp pointed\r\nend. Even if not the slightest other part of the creature be visible,\r\nthis isolated fin will, at times, be seen plainly projecting from the\r\nsurface. When the sea is moderately calm, and slightly marked with\r\nspherical ripples, and this gnomon-like fin stands up and casts shadows\r\nupon the wrinkled surface, it may well be supposed that the watery\r\ncircle surrounding it somewhat resembles a dial, with its style and\r\nwavy hour-lines graved on it. On that Ahaz-dial the shadow often goes\r\nback. The Fin-Back is not gregarious. He seems a whale-hater, as some\r\nmen are man-haters. Very shy; always going solitary; unexpectedly\r\nrising to the surface in the remotest and most sullen waters; his\r\nstraight and single lofty jet rising like a tall misanthropic spear\r\nupon a barren plain; gifted with such wondrous power and velocity in\r\nswimming, as to defy all present pursuit from man; this leviathan seems\r\nthe banished and unconquerable Cain of his race, bearing for his mark\r\nthat style upon his back. From having the baleen in his mouth, the\r\nFin-Back is sometimes included with the right whale, among a theoretic\r\nspecies denominated _Whalebone whales_, that is, whales with baleen. Of\r\nthese so called Whalebone whales, there would seem to be several\r\nvarieties, most of which, however, are little known. Broad-nosed whales\r\nand beaked whales; pike-headed whales; bunched whales; under-jawed\r\nwhales and rostrated whales, are the fishermen’s names for a few sorts.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 4"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR84A9QXWBKCWCK87YB232","peer_label":"32","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR84A9QXWBKCWCK87YB232","peer_label":"32","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"partOf"},{"peer":"01KFNR81RMVAX2BBMMBW51V97D","peer_label":"Moby Dick; Or, The Whale","peer_type":"novel","predicate":"partOf"},{"peer":"01KFNR0H0Q791Y1SMZWEQ09FGV","peer_label":"Moby Dick","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KFNR87121HVGQNQNPFAWX9AQ","peer_label":"Chunk 5","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR86VKF927P79B575NG5F9","peer_label":"Chunk 3","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:02.407Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:14.971Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}