{"id":"01KFNR89WD5VHT15BXC6Q89AS3","cid":"bafkreigkvsfcqlxar45wbbiizogymmzvg62c6ppnxtsdkly3i3z7upcrne","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":12200,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:04.730Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":12140,"text":"or rather weight, that oil, in its expressed state, is only three\r\nfourths, and not the entire substance of the coat; some idea may hence\r\nbe had of the enormousness of that animated mass, a mere part of whose\r\nmere integument yields such a lake of liquid as that. Reckoning ten\r\nbarrels to the ton, you have ten tons for the net weight of only three\r\nquarters of the stuff of the whale’s skin.\r\n\r\nIn life, the visible surface of the Sperm Whale is not the least among\r\nthe many marvels he presents. Almost invariably it is all over\r\nobliquely crossed and re-crossed with numberless straight marks in\r\nthick array, something like those in the finest Italian line\r\nengravings. But these marks do not seem to be impressed upon the\r\nisinglass substance above mentioned, but seem to be seen through it, as\r\nif they were engraved upon the body itself. Nor is this all. In some\r\ninstances, to the quick, observant eye, those linear marks, as in a\r\nveritable engraving, but afford the ground for far other delineations.\r\nThese are hieroglyphical; that is, if you call those mysterious cyphers\r\non the walls of pyramids hieroglyphics, then that is the proper word to\r\nuse in the present connexion. By my retentive memory of the\r\nhieroglyphics upon one Sperm Whale in particular, I was much struck\r\nwith a plate representing the old Indian characters chiselled on the\r\nfamous hieroglyphic palisades on the banks of the Upper Mississippi.\r\nLike those mystic rocks, too, the mystic-marked whale remains\r\nundecipherable. This allusion to the Indian rocks reminds me of another\r\nthing. Besides all the other phenomena which the exterior of the Sperm\r\nWhale presents, he not seldom displays the back, and more especially\r\nhis flanks, effaced in great part of the regular linear appearance, by\r\nreason of numerous rude scratches, altogether of an irregular, random\r\naspect. I should say that those New England rocks on the sea-coast,\r\nwhich Agassiz imagines to bear the marks of violent scraping contact\r\nwith vast floating icebergs—I should say, that those rocks must not a\r\nlittle resemble the Sperm Whale in this particular. It also seems to me\r\nthat such scratches in the whale are probably made by hostile contact\r\nwith other whales; for I have most remarked them in the large,\r\nfull-grown bulls of the species.\r\n\r\nA word or two more concerning this matter of the skin or blubber of the\r\nwhale. It has already been said, that it is stript from him in long\r\npieces, called blanket-pieces. Like most sea-terms, this one is very\r\nhappy and significant. For the whale is indeed wrapt up in his blubber\r\nas in a real blanket or counterpane; or, still better, an Indian poncho\r\nslipt over his head, and skirting his extremity. It is by reason of\r\nthis cosy blanketing of his body, that the whale is enabled to keep\r\nhimself comfortable in all weathers, in all seas, times, and tides.\r\nWhat would become of a Greenland whale, say, in those shuddering, icy\r\nseas of the North, if unsupplied with his cosy surtout? True, other\r\nfish are found exceedingly brisk in those Hyperborean waters; but\r\nthese, be it observed, are your cold-blooded, lungless fish, whose very\r\nbellies are refrigerators; creatures, that warm themselves under the\r\nlee of an iceberg, as a traveller in winter would bask before an inn\r\nfire; whereas, like man, the whale has lungs and warm blood. Freeze his\r\nblood, and he dies. How wonderful is it then—except after\r\nexplanation—that this great monster, to whom corporeal warmth is as\r\nindispensable as it is to man; how wonderful that he should be found at\r\nhome, immersed to his lips for life in those Arctic waters! where, when\r\nseamen fall overboard, they are sometimes found, months afterwards,\r\nperpendicularly frozen into the hearts of fields of ice, as a fly is\r\nfound glued in amber. But more surprising is it to know, as has been\r\nproved by experiment, that the blood of a Polar whale is warmer than\r\nthat of a Borneo negro in summer.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR84GNWA7NZ1XE5JHKPMJV","peer_label":"68","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR84GNWA7NZ1XE5JHKPMJV","peer_label":"68","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":"01KFNR89X91B1M95PGZ0T4EZKR","peer_label":"Chunk 2","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR89X3XPY4ECPEWS7E7Q07","peer_label":"Chunk 0","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:05.396Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:16.590Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}