{"id":"01KFNR8BARG3Q745JMY03MK9JN","cid":"bafkreiai7mpoli7rngu3udtqgvqewolsloez4n67uhwzgwjhy6pf4bsoly","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":17706,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:06.400Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 5","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":17643,"text":"species. A significant illustration of the fact, again and again\r\nrepeated in this book, that the skeleton of the whale furnishes but\r\nlittle clue to the shape of his fully invested body. So Owen\r\nrechristened the monster Zeuglodon; and in his paper read before the\r\nLondon Geological Society, pronounced it, in substance, one of the most\r\nextraordinary creatures which the mutations of the globe have blotted\r\nout of existence.\r\n\r\nWhen I stand among these mighty Leviathan skeletons, skulls, tusks,\r\njaws, ribs, and vertebræ, all characterized by partial resemblances to\r\nthe existing breeds of sea-monsters; but at the same time bearing on\r\nthe other hand similar affinities to the annihilated antichronical\r\nLeviathans, their incalculable seniors; I am, by a flood, borne back to\r\nthat wondrous period, ere time itself can be said to have begun; for\r\ntime began with man. Here Saturn’s grey chaos rolls over me, and I\r\nobtain dim, shuddering glimpses into those Polar eternities; when\r\nwedged bastions of ice pressed hard upon what are now the Tropics; and\r\nin all the 25,000 miles of this world’s circumference, not an\r\ninhabitable hand’s breadth of land was visible. Then the whole world\r\nwas the whale’s; and, king of creation, he left his wake along the\r\npresent lines of the Andes and the Himmalehs. Who can show a pedigree\r\nlike Leviathan? Ahab’s harpoon had shed older blood than the Pharaoh’s.\r\nMethuselah seems a school-boy. I look round to shake hands with Shem. I\r\nam horror-struck at this antemosaic, unsourced existence of the\r\nunspeakable terrors of the whale, which, having been before all time,\r\nmust needs exist after all humane ages are over.\r\n\r\nBut not alone has this Leviathan left his pre-adamite traces in the\r\nstereotype plates of nature, and in limestone and marl bequeathed his\r\nancient bust; but upon Egyptian tablets, whose antiquity seems to claim\r\nfor them an almost fossiliferous character, we find the unmistakable\r\nprint of his fin. In an apartment of the great temple of Denderah, some\r\nfifty years ago, there was discovered upon the granite ceiling a\r\nsculptured and painted planisphere, abounding in centaurs, griffins,\r\nand dolphins, similar to the grotesque figures on the celestial globe\r\nof the moderns. Gliding among them, old Leviathan swam as of yore; was\r\nthere swimming in that planisphere, centuries before Solomon was\r\ncradled.\r\n\r\nNor must there be omitted another strange attestation of the antiquity\r\nof the whale, in his own osseous post-diluvian reality, as set down by\r\nthe venerable John Leo, the old Barbary traveller.\r\n\r\n“Not far from the Sea-side, they have a Temple, the Rafters and Beams\r\nof which are made of Whale-Bones; for Whales of a monstrous size are\r\noftentimes cast up dead upon that shore. The Common People imagine,\r\nthat by a secret Power bestowed by God upon the Temple, no Whale can\r\npass it without immediate death. But the truth of the Matter is, that\r\non either side of the Temple, there are Rocks that shoot two Miles into\r\nthe Sea, and wound the Whales when they light upon ’em. They keep a\r\nWhale’s Rib of an incredible length for a Miracle, which lying upon the\r\nGround with its convex part uppermost, makes an Arch, the Head of which\r\ncannot be reached by a Man upon a Camel’s Back. This Rib (says John\r\nLeo) is said to have layn there a hundred Years before I saw it. Their\r\nHistorians affirm, that a Prophet who prophesy’d of Mahomet, came from\r\nthis Temple, and some do not stand to assert, that the Prophet Jonas\r\nwas cast forth by the Whale at the Base of the Temple.”\r\n\r\nIn this Afric Temple of the Whale I leave you, reader, and if you be a\r\nNantucketer, and a whaleman, you will silently worship there.\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 105. Does the Whale’s Magnitude Diminish?—Will He Perish?\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 5"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR84EFF59D065Y6QH9FE34","peer_label":"Leg and Arm","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR84EFF59D065Y6QH9FE34","peer_label":"Leg and Arm","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":"01KFNR8B71GYX0GM6M4Z0PKP0K","peer_label":"Chunk 6","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR8B84NX3XAJFX8FRSYEG9","peer_label":"Chunk 4","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:06.991Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:17.671Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}