{"id":"01KG8AP8GDSVZ09EWY1539WZ4E","cid":"bafkreicdqnp7f2kdwnodxc7jmyizlcivde3wmop36bi2snf7nrhyua7lhq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":10879,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:30.768Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 4","source_file":"01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6","start_line":10818,"text":"little ingenious contrivances they elaborately carve out of the rough\r\nmaterial, in their hours of ocean leisure. Some of them have little\r\nboxes of dentistical-looking implements, specially intended for the\r\nskrimshandering business. But, in general, they toil with their\r\njack-knives alone; and, with that almost omnipotent tool of the sailor,\r\nthey will turn you out anything you please, in the way of a mariner’s\r\nfancy.\r\n\r\nLong exile from Christendom and civilization inevitably restores a man\r\nto that condition in which God placed him, _i.e._ what is called\r\nsavagery. Your true whale-hunter is as much a savage as an Iroquois. I\r\nmyself am a savage, owning no allegiance but to the King of the\r\nCannibals; and ready at any moment to rebel against him.\r\n\r\nNow, one of the peculiar characteristics of the savage in his domestic\r\nhours, is his wonderful patience of industry. An ancient Hawaiian\r\nwar-club or spear-paddle, in its full multiplicity and elaboration of\r\ncarving, is as great a trophy of human perseverance as a Latin lexicon.\r\nFor, with but a bit of broken sea-shell or a shark’s tooth, that\r\nmiraculous intricacy of wooden net-work has been achieved; and it has\r\ncost steady years of steady application.\r\n\r\nAs with the Hawaiian savage, so with the white sailor-savage. With the\r\nsame marvellous patience, and with the same single shark’s tooth, of\r\nhis one poor jack-knife, he will carve you a bit of bone sculpture, not\r\nquite as workmanlike, but as close packed in its maziness of design, as\r\nthe Greek savage, Achilles’s shield; and full of barbaric spirit and\r\nsuggestiveness, as the prints of that fine old Dutch savage, Albert\r\nDurer.\r\n\r\nWooden whales, or whales cut in profile out of the small dark slabs of\r\nthe noble South Sea war-wood, are frequently met with in the\r\nforecastles of American whalers. Some of them are done with much\r\naccuracy.\r\n\r\nAt some old gable-roofed country houses you will see brass whales hung\r\nby the tail for knockers to the road-side door. When the porter is\r\nsleepy, the anvil-headed whale would be best. But these knocking whales\r\nare seldom remarkable as faithful essays. On the spires of some\r\nold-fashioned churches you will see sheet-iron whales placed there for\r\nweather-cocks; but they are so elevated, and besides that are to all\r\nintents and purposes so labelled with “_Hands off!_” you cannot examine\r\nthem closely enough to decide upon their merit.\r\n\r\nIn bony, ribby regions of the earth, where at the base of high broken\r\ncliffs masses of rock lie strewn in fantastic groupings upon the plain,\r\nyou will often discover images as of the petrified forms of the\r\nLeviathan partly merged in grass, which of a windy day breaks against\r\nthem in a surf of green surges.\r\n\r\nThen, again, in mountainous countries where the traveller is\r\ncontinually girdled by amphitheatrical heights; here and there from\r\nsome lucky point of view you will catch passing glimpses of the\r\nprofiles of whales defined along the undulating ridges. But you must be\r\na thorough whaleman, to see these sights; and not only that, but if you\r\nwish to return to such a sight again, you must be sure and take the\r\nexact intersecting latitude and longitude of your first stand-point,\r\nelse so chance-like are such observations of the hills, that your\r\nprecise, previous stand-point would require a laborious re-discovery;\r\nlike the Soloma Islands, which still remain incognita, though once\r\nhigh-ruffed Mendanna trod them and old Figuera chronicled them.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 4"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AM7XEJTHWA7R3YZ7TZ3Y3","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AP8GDWAXMVSPSJKJRKVMG","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AP8GD28ZAAJ8E46HBJ69Z","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:36.781Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:48.444Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}