{"id":"01KFNR89NGHXX4175V7QQAMXME","cid":"bafkreicr5euy4ivd3nnx2lbzrjwxizshbr23zlsjwloicgil7247ussre4","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":13203,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:04.741Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 0","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":13145,"text":"CHAPTER 75. The Right Whale’s Head—Contrasted View.\r\n\r\nCrossing the deck, let us now have a good long look at the Right\r\nWhale’s head.\r\n\r\nAs in general shape the noble Sperm Whale’s head may be compared to a\r\nRoman war-chariot (especially in front, where it is so broadly\r\nrounded); so, at a broad view, the Right Whale’s head bears a rather\r\ninelegant resemblance to a gigantic galliot-toed shoe. Two hundred\r\nyears ago an old Dutch voyager likened its shape to that of a\r\nshoemaker’s last. And in this same last or shoe, that old woman of the\r\nnursery tale, with the swarming brood, might very comfortably be\r\nlodged, she and all her progeny.\r\n\r\nBut as you come nearer to this great head it begins to assume different\r\naspects, according to your point of view. If you stand on its summit\r\nand look at these two F-shaped spoutholes, you would take the whole\r\nhead for an enormous bass-viol, and these spiracles, the apertures in\r\nits sounding-board. Then, again, if you fix your eye upon this strange,\r\ncrested, comb-like incrustation on the top of the mass—this green,\r\nbarnacled thing, which the Greenlanders call the “crown,” and the\r\nSouthern fishers the “bonnet” of the Right Whale; fixing your eyes\r\nsolely on this, you would take the head for the trunk of some huge oak,\r\nwith a bird’s nest in its crotch. At any rate, when you watch those\r\nlive crabs that nestle here on this bonnet, such an idea will be almost\r\nsure to occur to you; unless, indeed, your fancy has been fixed by the\r\ntechnical term “crown” also bestowed upon it; in which case you will\r\ntake great interest in thinking how this mighty monster is actually a\r\ndiademed king of the sea, whose green crown has been put together for\r\nhim in this marvellous manner. But if this whale be a king, he is a\r\nvery sulky looking fellow to grace a diadem. Look at that hanging lower\r\nlip! what a huge sulk and pout is there! a sulk and pout, by\r\ncarpenter’s measurement, about twenty feet long and five feet deep; a\r\nsulk and pout that will yield you some 500 gallons of oil and more.\r\n\r\nA great pity, now, that this unfortunate whale should be hare-lipped.\r\nThe fissure is about a foot across. Probably the mother during an\r\nimportant interval was sailing down the Peruvian coast, when\r\nearthquakes caused the beach to gape. Over this lip, as over a slippery\r\nthreshold, we now slide into the mouth. Upon my word were I at\r\nMackinaw, I should take this to be the inside of an Indian wigwam. Good\r\nLord! is this the road that Jonah went? The roof is about twelve feet\r\nhigh, and runs to a pretty sharp angle, as if there were a regular\r\nridge-pole there; while these ribbed, arched, hairy sides, present us\r\nwith those wondrous, half vertical, scimetar-shaped slats of whalebone,\r\nsay three hundred on a side, which depending from the upper part of the\r\nhead or crown bone, form those Venetian blinds which have elsewhere\r\nbeen cursorily mentioned. The edges of these bones are fringed with\r\nhairy fibres, through which the Right Whale strains the water, and in\r\nwhose intricacies he retains the small fish, when openmouthed he goes\r\nthrough the seas of brit in feeding time. In the central blinds of\r\nbone, as they stand in their natural order, there are certain curious\r\nmarks, curves, hollows, and ridges, whereby some whalemen calculate the\r\ncreature’s age, as the age of an oak by its circular rings. Though the\r\ncertainty of this criterion is far from demonstrable, yet it has the\r\nsavor of analogical probability. At any rate, if we yield to it, we\r\nmust grant a far greater age to the Right Whale than at first glance\r\nwill seem reasonable.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 0"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR84D0E01YNQDD2SZBKGBE","peer_label":"75","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR84D0E01YNQDD2SZBKGBE","peer_label":"75","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":"01KFNR89JY1QRPSKBKNEK3C6KV","peer_label":"Chunk 1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:05.188Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:17.930Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}