{"id":"01KG8AP6N6XQ1XXNXPFVGABSPX","cid":"bafkreibrl6s5wytlpfwbn7d5r5unxhncw3x2wxkvofsfvjlpfegk2cnjda","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":14675,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:30.771Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6","start_line":14611,"text":"CHAPTER 86. The Tail.\r\n\r\nOther poets have warbled the praises of the soft eye of the antelope,\r\nand the lovely plumage of the bird that never alights; less celestial,\r\nI celebrate a tail.\r\n\r\nReckoning the largest sized Sperm Whale’s tail to begin at that point\r\nof the trunk where it tapers to about the girth of a man, it comprises\r\nupon its upper surface alone, an area of at least fifty square feet.\r\nThe compact round body of its root expands into two broad, firm, flat\r\npalms or flukes, gradually shoaling away to less than an inch in\r\nthickness. At the crotch or junction, these flukes slightly overlap,\r\nthen sideways recede from each other like wings, leaving a wide vacancy\r\nbetween. In no living thing are the lines of beauty more exquisitely\r\ndefined than in the crescentic borders of these flukes. At its utmost\r\nexpansion in the full grown whale, the tail will considerably exceed\r\ntwenty feet across.\r\n\r\nThe entire member seems a dense webbed bed of welded sinews; but cut\r\ninto it, and you find that three distinct strata compose it:—upper,\r\nmiddle, and lower. The fibres in the upper and lower layers, are long\r\nand horizontal; those of the middle one, very short, and running\r\ncrosswise between the outside layers. This triune structure, as much as\r\nanything else, imparts power to the tail. To the student of old Roman\r\nwalls, the middle layer will furnish a curious parallel to the thin\r\ncourse of tiles always alternating with the stone in those wonderful\r\nrelics of the antique, and which undoubtedly contribute so much to the\r\ngreat strength of the masonry.\r\n\r\nBut as if this vast local power in the tendinous tail were not enough,\r\nthe whole bulk of the leviathan is knit over with a warp and woof of\r\nmuscular fibres and filaments, which passing on either side the loins\r\nand running down into the flukes, insensibly blend with them, and\r\nlargely contribute to their might; so that in the tail the confluent\r\nmeasureless force of the whole whale seems concentrated to a point.\r\nCould annihilation occur to matter, this were the thing to do it.\r\n\r\nNor does this—its amazing strength, at all tend to cripple the graceful\r\nflexion of its motions; where infantileness of ease undulates through a\r\nTitanism of power. On the contrary, those motions derive their most\r\nappalling beauty from it. Real strength never impairs beauty or\r\nharmony, but it often bestows it; and in everything imposingly\r\nbeautiful, strength has much to do with the magic. Take away the tied\r\ntendons that all over seem bursting from the marble in the carved\r\nHercules, and its charm would be gone. As devout Eckerman lifted the\r\nlinen sheet from the naked corpse of Goethe, he was overwhelmed with\r\nthe massive chest of the man, that seemed as a Roman triumphal arch.\r\nWhen Angelo paints even God the Father in human form, mark what\r\nrobustness is there. And whatever they may reveal of the divine love in\r\nthe Son, the soft, curled, hermaphroditical Italian pictures, in which\r\nhis idea has been most successfully embodied; these pictures, so\r\ndestitute as they are of all brawniness, hint nothing of any power, but\r\nthe mere negative, feminine one of submission and endurance, which on\r\nall hands it is conceded, form the peculiar practical virtues of his\r\nteachings.\r\n\r\nSuch is the subtle elasticity of the organ I treat of, that whether\r\nwielded in sport, or in earnest, or in anger, whatever be the mood it\r\nbe in, its flexions are invariably marked by exceeding grace. Therein\r\nno fairy’s arm can transcend it.\r\n\r\nFive great motions are peculiar to it. First, when used as a fin for\r\nprogression; Second, when used as a mace in battle; Third, in sweeping;\r\nFourth, in lobtailing; Fifth, in peaking flukes.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AM9QN704AKJS0W1C1Z4DH","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AP6N67NV518GWR0WVQND2","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:34.886Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:52.124Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}