{"id":"01KJNXJQWJGAV83JZPVWR88CM0","cid":"bafkreihd5q5d2rcpg7wk3db74pz3f4l75dl7zayvbp5n4b55nhn7j4iqce","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":321025,"char_start":313083,"chunk_index":44,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":1986,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"English naturalists; the Greenland Whale of the English whalemen; the\r\nBaleine Ordinaire of the French whalemen; the Growlands Walfish of the\r\nSwedes. It is the whale which for more than two centuries past has been\r\nhunted by the Dutch and English in the Arctic seas; it is the whale\r\nwhich the American fishermen have long pursued in the Indian ocean, on\r\nthe Brazil Banks, on the Nor’ West Coast, and various other parts of\r\nthe world, designated by them Right Whale Cruising Grounds.\r\n\r\nSome pretend to see a difference between the Greenland whale of the\r\nEnglish and the right whale of the Americans. But they precisely agree\r\nin all their grand features; nor has there yet been presented a single\r\ndeterminate fact upon which to ground a radical distinction. It is by\r\nendless subdivisions based upon the most inconclusive differences, that\r\nsome departments of natural history become so repellingly intricate.\r\nThe right whale will be elsewhere treated of at some length, with\r\nreference to elucidating the sperm whale.\r\n\r\nBOOK I. (_Folio_), CHAPTER III. (_Fin-Back_).—Under this head I reckon\r\na monster which, by the various names of Fin-Back, Tall-Spout, and\r\nLong-John, has been seen almost in every sea and is commonly the whale\r\nwhose distant jet is so often descried by passengers crossing the\r\nAtlantic, in the New York packet-tracks. In the length he attains, and\r\nin his baleen, the Fin-back resembles the right whale, but is of a less\r\nportly girth, and a lighter colour, approaching to olive. His great\r\nlips present a cable-like aspect, formed by the intertwisting, slanting\r\nfolds of large wrinkles. His grand distinguishing feature, the fin,\r\nfrom which he derives his name, is often a conspicuous object. This fin\r\nis some three or four feet long, growing vertically from the hinder\r\npart of the back, of an angular shape, and with a very sharp pointed\r\nend. Even if not the slightest other part of the creature be visible,\r\nthis isolated fin will, at times, be seen plainly projecting from the\r\nsurface. When the sea is moderately calm, and slightly marked with\r\nspherical ripples, and this gnomon-like fin stands up and casts shadows\r\nupon the wrinkled surface, it may well be supposed that the watery\r\ncircle surrounding it somewhat resembles a dial, with its style and\r\nwavy hour-lines graved on it. On that Ahaz-dial the shadow often goes\r\nback. The Fin-Back is not gregarious. He seems a whale-hater, as some\r\nmen are man-haters. Very shy; always going solitary; unexpectedly\r\nrising to the surface in the remotest and most sullen waters; his\r\nstraight and single lofty jet rising like a tall misanthropic spear\r\nupon a barren plain; gifted with such wondrous power and velocity in\r\nswimming, as to defy all present pursuit from man; this leviathan seems\r\nthe banished and unconquerable Cain of his race, bearing for his mark\r\nthat style upon his back. From having the baleen in his mouth, the\r\nFin-Back is sometimes included with the right whale, among a theoretic\r\nspecies denominated _Whalebone whales_, that is, whales with baleen. Of\r\nthese so called Whalebone whales, there would seem to be several\r\nvarieties, most of which, however, are little known. Broad-nosed whales\r\nand beaked whales; pike-headed whales; bunched whales; under-jawed\r\nwhales and rostrated whales, are the fishermen’s names for a few sorts.\r\n\r\nIn connection with this appellative of “Whalebone whales,” it is of\r\ngreat importance to mention, that however such a nomenclature may be\r\nconvenient in facilitating allusions to some kind of whales, yet it is\r\nin vain to attempt a clear classification of the Leviathan, founded\r\nupon either his baleen, or hump, or fin, or teeth; notwithstanding that\r\nthose marked parts or features very obviously seem better adapted to\r\nafford the basis for a regular system of Cetology than any other\r\ndetached bodily distinctions, which the whale, in his kinds, presents.\r\nHow then? The baleen, hump, back-fin, and teeth; these are things whose\r\npeculiarities are indiscriminately dispersed among all sorts of whales,\r\nwithout any regard to what may be the nature of their structure in\r\nother and more essential particulars. Thus, the sperm whale and the\r\nhumpbacked whale, each has a hump; but there the similitude ceases.\r\nThen, this same humpbacked whale and the Greenland whale, each of these\r\nhas baleen; but there again the similitude ceases. And it is just the\r\nsame with the other parts above mentioned. In various sorts of whales,\r\nthey form such irregular combinations; or, in the case of any one of\r\nthem detached, such an irregular isolation; as utterly to defy all\r\ngeneral methodization formed upon such a basis. On this rock every one\r\nof the whale-naturalists has split.\r\n\r\nBut it may possibly be conceived that, in the internal parts of the\r\nwhale, in his anatomy—there, at least, we shall be able to hit the\r\nright classification. Nay; what thing, for example, is there in the\r\nGreenland whale’s anatomy more striking than his baleen? Yet we have\r\nseen that by his baleen it is impossible correctly to classify the\r\nGreenland whale. And if you descend into the bowels of the various\r\nleviathans, why there you will not find distinctions a fiftieth part as\r\navailable to the systematizer as those external ones already\r\nenumerated. What then remains? nothing but to take hold of the whales\r\nbodily, in their entire liberal volume, and boldly sort them that way.\r\nAnd this is the Bibliographical system here adopted; and it is the only\r\none that can possibly succeed, for it alone is practicable. To proceed.\r\n\r\nBOOK I. (_Folio_) CHAPTER IV. (_Hump Back_).—This whale is often seen\r\non the northern American coast. He has been frequently captured there,\r\nand towed into harbor. He has a great pack on him like a peddler; or\r\nyou might call him the Elephant and Castle whale. At any rate, the\r\npopular name for him does not sufficiently distinguish him, since the\r\nsperm whale also has a hump though a smaller one. His oil is not very\r\nvaluable. He has baleen. He is the most gamesome and light-hearted of\r\nall the whales, making more gay foam and white water generally than any\r\nother of them.\r\n\r\nBOOK I. (_Folio_), CHAPTER V. (_Razor Back_).—Of this whale little is\r\nknown but his name. I have seen him at a distance off Cape Horn. Of a\r\nretiring nature, he eludes both hunters and philosophers. Though no\r\ncoward, he has never yet shown any part of him but his back, which\r\nrises in a long sharp ridge. Let him go. I know little more of him, nor\r\ndoes anybody else.\r\n\r\nBOOK I. (_Folio_), CHAPTER VI. (_Sulphur Bottom_).—Another retiring\r\ngentleman, with a brimstone belly, doubtless got by scraping along the\r\nTartarian tiles in some of his profounder divings. He is seldom seen;\r\nat least I have never seen him except in the remoter southern seas, and\r\nthen always at too great a distance to study his countenance. He is\r\nnever chased; he would run away with rope-walks of line. Prodigies are\r\ntold of him. Adieu, Sulphur Bottom! I can say nothing more that is true\r\nof ye, nor can the oldest Nantucketer.\r\n\r\nThus ends BOOK I. (_Folio_), and now begins BOOK II. (_Octavo_).\r\n\r\nOCTAVOES.*—These embrace the whales of middling magnitude, among which\r\npresent may be numbered:—I., the _Grampus_; II., the _Black Fish_;\r\nIII., the _Narwhale_; IV., the _Thrasher_; V., the _Killer_.\r\n\r\n*Why this book of whales is not denominated the Quarto is very plain.\r\nBecause, while the whales of this order, though smaller than those of\r\nthe former order, nevertheless retain a proportionate likeness to them\r\nin figure, yet the bookbinder’s Quarto volume in its dimensioned form\r\ndoes not preserve the shape of the Folio volume, but the Octavo volume\r\ndoes.\r\n\r\nBOOK II. (_Octavo_), CHAPTER I. (_Grampus_).—Though this fish, whose\r\nloud sonorous breathing, or rather blowing, has furnished a proverb to\r\nlandsmen, is so well known a denizen of the deep, yet is he not\r\npopularly classed among whales."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJNXEDHZCC8DR4EPSQD0QP4P","peer_label":"moby-dick","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJNXECF9R1EZKS5Z7J8A8ZSB","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"}],"ver":1,"created_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:15.666Z","ts":"2026-03-02T00:01:15.666Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KJ6WPT018SDDANE6N7Q8E428"}}