{"id":"01KJNXJV78QXQ7HM5K6K71KBPX","cid":"bafkreidjahrq6ztyhmqdsoi46wro4xwn3cwyx627hj7zye3yfttiyqmcrm","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":824378,"char_start":816760,"chunk_index":115,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":1905,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"\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\nare different; but in any one they are alike. Now, why should the whale\r\nthus insist upon having his spoutings out, unless it be to replenish\r\nhis reservoir of air, ere descending for good? How obvious is it, too,\r\nthat this necessity for the whale’s rising exposes him to all the fatal\r\nhazards of the chase. For not by hook or by net could this vast\r\nleviathan be caught, when sailing a thousand fathoms beneath the\r\nsunlight. Not so much thy skill, then, O hunter, as the great\r\nnecessities that strike the victory to thee!\r\n\r\nIn man, breathing is incessantly going on—one breath only serving for\r\ntwo or three pulsations; so that whatever other business he has to\r\nattend to, waking or sleeping, breathe he must, or die he will. But the\r\nSperm Whale only breathes about one seventh or Sunday of his time.\r\n\r\nIt has been said that the whale only breathes through his spout-hole;\r\nif it could truthfully be added that his spouts are mixed with water,\r\nthen I opine we should be furnished with the reason why his sense of\r\nsmell seems obliterated in him; for the only thing about him that at\r\nall answers to his nose is that identical spout-hole; and being so\r\nclogged with two elements, it could not be expected to have the power\r\nof smelling. But owing to the mystery of the spout—whether it be water\r\nor whether it be vapor—no absolute certainty can as yet be arrived at\r\non this head. Sure it is, nevertheless, that the Sperm Whale has no\r\nproper olfactories. But what does he want of them? No roses, no\r\nviolets, no Cologne-water in the sea.\r\n\r\nFurthermore, as his windpipe solely opens into the tube of his spouting\r\ncanal, and as that long canal—like the grand Erie Canal—is furnished\r\nwith a sort of locks (that open and shut) for the downward retention of\r\nair or the upward exclusion of water, therefore the whale has no voice;\r\nunless you insult him by saying, that when he so strangely rumbles, he\r\ntalks through his nose. But then again, what has the whale to say?\r\nSeldom have I known any profound being that had anything to say to this\r\nworld, unless forced to stammer out something by way of getting a\r\nliving. Oh! happy that the world is such an excellent listener!\r\n\r\nNow, the spouting canal of the Sperm Whale, chiefly intended as it is\r\nfor the conveyance of air, and for several feet laid along,\r\nhorizontally, just beneath the upper surface of his head, and a little\r\nto one side; this curious canal is very much like a gas-pipe laid down\r\nin a city on one side of a street. But the question returns whether\r\nthis gas-pipe is also a water-pipe; in other words, whether the spout\r\nof the Sperm Whale is the mere vapor of the exhaled breath, or whether\r\nthat exhaled breath is mixed with water taken in at the mouth, and\r\ndischarged through the spiracle. It is certain that the mouth\r\nindirectly communicates with the spouting canal; but it cannot be\r\nproved that this is for the purpose of discharging water through the\r\nspiracle. Because the greatest necessity for so doing would seem to be,\r\nwhen in feeding he accidentally takes in water. But the Sperm Whale’s\r\nfood is far beneath the surface, and there he cannot spout even if he\r\nwould. Besides, if you regard him very closely, and time him with your\r\nwatch, you will find that when unmolested, there is an undeviating\r\nrhyme between the periods of his jets and the ordinary periods of\r\nrespiration.\r\n\r\nBut why pester one with all this reasoning on the subject? Speak out!\r\nYou have seen him spout; then declare what the spout is; can you not\r\ntell water from air? My dear sir, in this world it is not so easy to\r\nsettle these plain things. I have ever found your plain things the\r\nknottiest of all."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJNXEDHZCC8DR4EPSQD0QP4P","peer_label":"moby-dick","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJNXECF9R1EZKS5Z7J8A8ZSB","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KJNXM6YXXQ70AAEZD8S8H95C","peer_label":"sperm whale","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"species","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:18.616Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXN8ZKS64T4ETAYNXE1YW6","peer_label":"finny tribes","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"biological_group","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:18.616Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXN93QM92E12J5K86Q6R6Q","peer_label":"hunters whale","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"occupation","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:18.616Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNFG04Q35ZY861K2P7128","peer_label":"spouting canal sperm whale","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"anatomical_structure","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:18.616Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNFMZMZYJMVK5AHY8G8ZW","peer_label":"cretan labyrinth of vermicelli-like vessels","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"anatomical_structure","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:18.616Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNFSAR0FSFF59V02N0R2T","peer_label":"whale","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"species","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:18.616Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNFP6P7J7CJ49H258AW3T","peer_label":"spouting whale phenomenon","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"natural_phenomenon","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:18.616Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXP31GTMEZ6NRS29VS9NRH","peer_label":"oxygenated blood","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"biological_substance","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:18.616Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXP9G13T2PPQT14H8NWHRC","peer_label":"lungs","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:18.616Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNA83K4PWZG84D6252KKM","peer_label":"problem of spout composition","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"scientific_mystery","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:18.616Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNDQTJBSR6Z070YNSQRGP","peer_label":"chase whaling activity","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"activity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:18.616Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNFP91STB4SCK87A4Q5K1","peer_label":"spiracle whale","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"anatomical_structure","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:18.616Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXVXA95ZR2PQGK42CBATTM","peer_label":"gills","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:18.616Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXWPKE1VY36QHGPCJW1RP3","peer_label":"sense of smell whale","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"biological_sense","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:18.616Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXXEQRWHSN7427ZCM92V11","peer_label":"gas-pipe analogy","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"object","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:18.616Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXY9W0WQQJ72NX9BSVW5Q7","peer_label":"erie canal","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"man-made_structure","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:18.616Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:19.080Z","ts":"2026-03-02T00:08:19.879Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}