{"id":"01KG8AP3WXD15AYZKGNMJ7C8TD","cid":"bafkreifla6wny4och3zlnlqqxdvtjhlvjelf4c7ws5dicow7shij7afe4m","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":17795,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:30.774Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6","start_line":17737,"text":"through Behring’s straits, and into the remotest secret drawers and\r\nlockers of the world; and the thousand harpoons and lances darted along\r\nall continental coasts; the moot point is, whether Leviathan can long\r\nendure so wide a chase, and so remorseless a havoc; whether he must not\r\nat last be exterminated from the waters, and the last whale, like the\r\nlast man, smoke his last pipe, and then himself evaporate in the final\r\npuff.\r\n\r\nComparing the humped herds of whales with the humped herds of buffalo,\r\nwhich, not forty years ago, overspread by tens of thousands the\r\nprairies of Illinois and Missouri, and shook their iron manes and\r\nscowled with their thunder-clotted brows upon the sites of populous\r\nriver-capitals, where now the polite broker sells you land at a dollar\r\nan inch; in such a comparison an irresistible argument would seem\r\nfurnished, to show that the hunted whale cannot now escape speedy\r\nextinction.\r\n\r\nBut you must look at this matter in every light. Though so short a\r\nperiod ago—not a good lifetime—the census of the buffalo in Illinois\r\nexceeded the census of men now in London, and though at the present day\r\nnot one horn or hoof of them remains in all that region; and though the\r\ncause of this wondrous extermination was the spear of man; yet the far\r\ndifferent nature of the whale-hunt peremptorily forbids so inglorious\r\nan end to the Leviathan. Forty men in one ship hunting the Sperm Whales\r\nfor forty-eight months think they have done extremely well, and thank\r\nGod, if at last they carry home the oil of forty fish. Whereas, in the\r\ndays of the old Canadian and Indian hunters and trappers of the West,\r\nwhen the far west (in whose sunset suns still rise) was a wilderness\r\nand a virgin, the same number of moccasined men, for the same number of\r\nmonths, mounted on horse instead of sailing in ships, would have slain\r\nnot forty, but forty thousand and more buffaloes; a fact that, if need\r\nwere, could be statistically stated.\r\n\r\nNor, considered aright, does it seem any argument in favour of the\r\ngradual extinction of the Sperm Whale, for example, that in former\r\nyears (the latter part of the last century, say) these Leviathans, in\r\nsmall pods, were encountered much oftener than at present, and, in\r\nconsequence, the voyages were not so prolonged, and were also much more\r\nremunerative. Because, as has been elsewhere noticed, those whales,\r\ninfluenced by some views to safety, now swim the seas in immense\r\ncaravans, so that to a large degree the scattered solitaries, yokes,\r\nand pods, and schools of other days are now aggregated into vast but\r\nwidely separated, unfrequent armies. That is all. And equally\r\nfallacious seems the conceit, that because the so-called whale-bone\r\nwhales no longer haunt many grounds in former years abounding with\r\nthem, hence that species also is declining. For they are only being\r\ndriven from promontory to cape; and if one coast is no longer enlivened\r\nwith their jets, then, be sure, some other and remoter strand has been\r\nvery recently startled by the unfamiliar spectacle.\r\n\r\nFurthermore: concerning these last mentioned Leviathans, they have two\r\nfirm fortresses, which, in all human probability, will for ever remain\r\nimpregnable. And as upon the invasion of their valleys, the frosty\r\nSwiss have retreated to their mountains; so, hunted from the savannas\r\nand glades of the middle seas, the whale-bone whales can at last resort\r\nto their Polar citadels, and diving under the ultimate glassy barriers\r\nand walls there, come up among icy fields and floes; and in a charmed\r\ncircle of everlasting December, bid defiance to all pursuit from man.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AMATKT365D6MYKBMPFY1W","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AP3WXMGY7H6S31NVRB7RM","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:32.061Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:54.970Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}