{"id":"01KG8AP6N6X6GTGX1V9ST8F0CH","cid":"bafkreibvxtqfowsaf54kkvxrxf6trqxq6rwgihyjgdi6g6eod7t422ru5y","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":14485,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:30.771Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6","start_line":14424,"text":"CHAPTER 85. The Fountain.\r\n\r\nThat for six thousand years—and no one knows how many millions of ages\r\nbefore—the great whales should have been spouting all over the sea, and\r\nsprinkling and mistifying the gardens of the deep, as with so many\r\nsprinkling or mistifying pots; and that for some centuries back,\r\nthousands of hunters should have been close by the fountain of the\r\nwhale, watching these sprinklings and spoutings—that all this should\r\nbe, and yet, that down to this blessed minute (fifteen and a quarter\r\nminutes past one o’clock P.M. of this sixteenth day of December, A.D.\r\n1851), it should still remain a problem, whether these spoutings are,\r\nafter all, really water, or nothing but vapor—this is surely a\r\nnoteworthy thing.\r\n\r\nLet us, then, look at this matter, along with some interesting items\r\ncontingent. Every one knows that by the peculiar cunning of their\r\ngills, the finny tribes in general breathe the air which at all times\r\nis combined with the element in which they swim; hence, a herring or a\r\ncod might live a century, and never once raise its head above the\r\nsurface. But owing to his marked internal structure which gives him\r\nregular lungs, like a human being’s, the whale can only live by\r\ninhaling the disengaged air in the open atmosphere. Wherefore the\r\nnecessity for his periodical visits to the upper world. But he cannot\r\nin any degree breathe through his mouth, for, in his ordinary attitude,\r\nthe Sperm Whale’s mouth is buried at least eight feet beneath the\r\nsurface; and what is still more, his windpipe has no connexion with his\r\nmouth. No, he breathes through his spiracle alone; and this is on the\r\ntop of his head.\r\n\r\nIf I say, that in any creature breathing is only a function\r\nindispensable to vitality, inasmuch as it withdraws from the air a\r\ncertain element, which being subsequently brought into contact with the\r\nblood imparts to the blood its vivifying principle, I do not think I\r\nshall err; though I may possibly use some superfluous scientific words.\r\nAssume it, and it follows that if all the blood in a man could be\r\naerated with one breath, he might then seal up his nostrils and not\r\nfetch another for a considerable time. That is to say, he would then\r\nlive without breathing. Anomalous as it may seem, this is precisely the\r\ncase with the whale, who systematically lives, by intervals, his full\r\nhour and more (when at the bottom) without drawing a single breath, or\r\nso much as in any way inhaling a particle of air; for, remember, he has\r\nno gills. How is this? Between his ribs and on each side of his spine\r\nhe is supplied with a remarkable involved Cretan labyrinth of\r\nvermicelli-like vessels, which vessels, when he quits the surface, are\r\ncompletely distended with oxygenated blood. So that for an hour or\r\nmore, a thousand fathoms in the sea, he carries a surplus stock of\r\nvitality in him, just as the camel crossing the waterless desert\r\ncarries a surplus supply of drink for future use in its four\r\nsupplementary stomachs. The anatomical fact of this labyrinth is\r\nindisputable; and that the supposition founded upon it is reasonable\r\nand true, seems the more cogent to me, when I consider the otherwise\r\ninexplicable obstinacy of that leviathan in _having his spoutings out_,\r\nas the fishermen phrase it. This is what I mean. If unmolested, upon\r\nrising to the surface, the Sperm Whale will continue there for a period\r\nof time exactly uniform with all his other unmolested risings. Say he\r\nstays eleven minutes, and jets seventy times, that is, respires seventy\r\nbreaths; then whenever he rises again, he will be sure to have his\r\nseventy breaths over again, to a minute. Now, if after he fetches a few\r\nbreaths you alarm him, so that he sounds, he will be always dodging up\r\nagain to make good his regular allowance of air. And not till those\r\nseventy breaths are told, will he finally go down to stay out his full\r\nterm below. Remark, however, that in different individuals these rates\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AM9QNM7D1G6MBF8DFHRV9","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AP6N281H8G65MAVSR2AFH","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:34.886Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:51.878Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}