{"id":"01KFNR89V677Z1KM8R40VWERWF","cid":"bafkreifshd26lz6mqrp7wvpkavdrrv6lq6utr4z6oclz7vvafn7ff4kddq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":13786,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:04.747Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 9","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":13721,"text":"omitted an important thing in not pushing their investigations from the\r\ncerebellum through the spinal canal. For I believe that much of a man’s\r\ncharacter will be found betokened in his backbone. I would rather feel\r\nyour spine than your skull, whoever you are. A thin joist of a spine\r\nnever yet upheld a full and noble soul. I rejoice in my spine, as in\r\nthe firm audacious staff of that flag which I fling half out to the\r\nworld.\r\n\r\nApply this spinal branch of phrenology to the Sperm Whale. His cranial\r\ncavity is continuous with the first neck-vertebra; and in that vertebra\r\nthe bottom of the spinal canal will measure ten inches across, being\r\neight in height, and of a triangular figure with the base downwards. As\r\nit passes through the remaining vertebræ the canal tapers in size, but\r\nfor a considerable distance remains of large capacity. Now, of course,\r\nthis canal is filled with much the same strangely fibrous substance—the\r\nspinal cord—as the brain; and directly communicates with the brain. And\r\nwhat is still more, for many feet after emerging from the brain’s\r\ncavity, the spinal cord remains of an undecreasing girth, almost equal\r\nto that of the brain. Under all these circumstances, would it be\r\nunreasonable to survey and map out the whale’s spine phrenologically?\r\nFor, viewed in this light, the wonderful comparative smallness of his\r\nbrain proper is more than compensated by the wonderful comparative\r\nmagnitude of his spinal cord.\r\n\r\nBut leaving this hint to operate as it may with the phrenologists, I\r\nwould merely assume the spinal theory for a moment, in reference to the\r\nSperm Whale’s hump. This august hump, if I mistake not, rises over one\r\nof the larger vertebræ, and is, therefore, in some sort, the outer\r\nconvex mould of it. From its relative situation then, I should call\r\nthis high hump the organ of firmness or indomitableness in the Sperm\r\nWhale. And that the great monster is indomitable, you will yet have\r\nreason to know.\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 81. The Pequod Meets The Virgin.\r\n\r\nThe predestinated day arrived, and we duly met the ship Jungfrau,\r\nDerick De Deer, master, of Bremen.\r\n\r\nAt one time the greatest whaling people in the world, the Dutch and\r\nGermans are now among the least; but here and there at very wide\r\nintervals of latitude and longitude, you still occasionally meet with\r\ntheir flag in the Pacific.\r\n\r\nFor some reason, the Jungfrau seemed quite eager to pay her respects.\r\nWhile yet some distance from the Pequod, she rounded to, and dropping a\r\nboat, her captain was impelled towards us, impatiently standing in the\r\nbows instead of the stern.\r\n\r\n“What has he in his hand there?” cried Starbuck, pointing to something\r\nwavingly held by the German. “Impossible!—a lamp-feeder!”\r\n\r\n“Not that,” said Stubb, “no, no, it’s a coffee-pot, Mr. Starbuck; he’s\r\ncoming off to make us our coffee, is the Yarman; don’t you see that big\r\ntin can there alongside of him?—that’s his boiling water. Oh! he’s all\r\nright, is the Yarman.”\r\n\r\n“Go along with you,” cried Flask, “it’s a lamp-feeder and an oil-can.\r\nHe’s out of oil, and has come a-begging.”\r\n\r\nHowever curious it may seem for an oil-ship to be borrowing oil on the\r\nwhale-ground, and however much it may invertedly contradict the old\r\nproverb about carrying coals to Newcastle, yet sometimes such a thing\r\nreally happens; and in the present case Captain Derick De Deer did\r\nindubitably conduct a lamp-feeder as Flask did declare.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 9"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR84AAHSNQ4BFJ0ASPHB53","peer_label":"76","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR84AAHSNQ4BFJ0ASPHB53","peer_label":"76","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":"01KFNR89JXQQQQE71QC9KHXNZB","peer_label":"Chunk 10","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR89NF4D839SYWW2PRVMVX","peer_label":"Chunk 8","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:05.566Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:17.626Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}