{"id":"01KJNXJR0DY2N4YG6NWS1MPN43","cid":"bafkreicicet67z7uxj3wiuovz5ubji6hzoqhxbtja6n6amicstrpx3u7ru","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":612271,"char_start":604668,"chunk_index":85,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":1901,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"beholder fights his way, pell-mell, through the consecutive great\r\nbattles of France; where every sword seems a flash of the Northern\r\nLights, and the successive armed kings and Emperors dash by, like a\r\ncharge of crowned centaurs? Not wholly unworthy of a place in that\r\ngallery, are these sea battle-pieces of Garnery.\r\n\r\nThe natural aptitude of the French for seizing the picturesqueness of\r\nthings seems to be peculiarly evinced in what paintings and engravings\r\nthey have of their whaling scenes. With not one tenth of England’s\r\nexperience in the fishery, and not the thousandth part of that of the\r\nAmericans, they have nevertheless furnished both nations with the only\r\nfinished sketches at all capable of conveying the real spirit of the\r\nwhale hunt. For the most part, the English and American whale\r\ndraughtsmen seem entirely content with presenting the mechanical\r\noutline of things, such as the vacant profile of the whale; which, so\r\nfar as picturesqueness of effect is concerned, is about tantamount to\r\nsketching the profile of a pyramid. Even Scoresby, the justly renowned\r\nRight whaleman, after giving us a stiff full length of the Greenland\r\nwhale, and three or four delicate miniatures of narwhales and\r\nporpoises, treats us to a series of classical engravings of boat hooks,\r\nchopping knives, and grapnels; and with the microscopic diligence of a\r\nLeuwenhoeck submits to the inspection of a shivering world ninety-six\r\nfac-similes of magnified Arctic snow crystals. I mean no disparagement\r\nto the excellent voyager (I honor him for a veteran), but in so\r\nimportant a matter it was certainly an oversight not to have procured\r\nfor every crystal a sworn affidavit taken before a Greenland Justice of\r\nthe Peace.\r\n\r\nIn addition to those fine engravings from Garnery, there are two other\r\nFrench engravings worthy of note, by some one who subscribes himself\r\n“H. Durand.” One of them, though not precisely adapted to our present\r\npurpose, nevertheless deserves mention on other accounts. It is a quiet\r\nnoon-scene among the isles of the Pacific; a French whaler anchored,\r\ninshore, in a calm, and lazily taking water on board; the loosened\r\nsails of the ship, and the long leaves of the palms in the background,\r\nboth drooping together in the breezeless air. The effect is very fine,\r\nwhen considered with reference to its presenting the hardy fishermen\r\nunder one of their few aspects of oriental repose. The other engraving\r\nis quite a different affair: the ship hove-to upon the open sea, and in\r\nthe very heart of the Leviathanic life, with a Right Whale alongside;\r\nthe vessel (in the act of cutting-in) hove over to the monster as if to\r\na quay; and a boat, hurriedly pushing off from this scene of activity,\r\nis about giving chase to whales in the distance. The harpoons and\r\nlances lie levelled for use; three oarsmen are just setting the mast in\r\nits hole; while from a sudden roll of the sea, the little craft stands\r\nhalf-erect out of the water, like a rearing horse. From the ship, the\r\nsmoke of the torments of the boiling whale is going up like the smoke\r\nover a village of smithies; and to windward, a black cloud, rising up\r\nwith earnest of squalls and rains, seems to quicken the activity of the\r\nexcited seamen.\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 57. Of Whales in Paint; in Teeth; in Wood; in Sheet-Iron; in\r\nStone; in Mountains; in Stars.\r\n\r\nOn Tower-hill, as you go down to the London docks, you may have seen a\r\ncrippled beggar (or _kedger_, as the sailors say) holding a painted\r\nboard before him, representing the tragic scene in which he lost his\r\nleg. There are three whales and three boats; and one of the boats\r\n(presumed to contain the missing leg in all its original integrity) is\r\nbeing crunched by the jaws of the foremost whale. Any time these ten\r\nyears, they tell me, has that man held up that picture, and exhibited\r\nthat stump to an incredulous world. But the time of his justification\r\nhas now come. His three whales are as good whales as were ever\r\npublished in Wapping, at any rate; and his stump as unquestionable a\r\nstump as any you will find in the western clearings. But, though for\r\never mounted on that stump, never a stump-speech does the poor whaleman\r\nmake; but, with downcast eyes, stands ruefully contemplating his own\r\namputation.\r\n\r\nThroughout the Pacific, and also in Nantucket, and New Bedford, and Sag\r\nHarbor, you will come across lively sketches of whales and\r\nwhaling-scenes, graven by the fishermen themselves on Sperm\r\nWhale-teeth, or ladies’ busks wrought out of the Right Whale-bone, and\r\nother like skrimshander articles, as the whalemen call the numerous\r\nlittle 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."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJNXEDHZCC8DR4EPSQD0QP4P","peer_label":"moby-dick","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJNXECF9R1EZKS5Z7J8A8ZSB","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"}],"ver":1,"created_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:15.789Z","ts":"2026-03-02T00:01:15.789Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KJ6WPT018SDDANE6N7Q8E428"}}