Here, now, are two great whales, laying their heads together; let us join them, and lay together our own.
Of the grand order of folio leviathans, the Sperm1 Whale and the Right Whale are by far the most noteworthy. They are the only whales regularly hunted by man. To the Nantucketer, they present the two extremes of all the known varieties of the whale. As the external difference between them is mainly observable in their heads; and as a head of each is this moment hanging from the Pequod's side; and as we may freely go from one to the other, by merely stepping across the deck:--where, I should like to know, will you obtain a better chance to study practical cetology than here?
In the first place, you are struck by the general contrast between these heads. Both are massive enough in all conscience; but, there is a certain mathematical symmetry in the Sperm Whale's which the Right Whale's sadly lacks. There is more character in the Sperm Whale's head. As you behold2 it, you involuntarily yield the immense superiority to him, in point of pervading3 dignity. In the present instance, too, this dignity is heightened by the pepper and salt color of his head at the summit, giving token of advanced age and large experience. In short, he is what the fishermen technically4 call a "grey-headed whale."
Let us now note what is least dissimilar in these heads-- namely, the two most important organs, the eye and the ear. Far back on the side of the head, and low down, near the angle of either whale's jaw5, if you narrowly search, you will at last see a lashless6 eye, which you would fancy to be a young colt's eye; so out of all proportion is it to the magnitude of the head.
Now, from this peculiar7 sideway position of the whale's eyes, it is plain that he can never see an object which is exactly ahead, no more than he can one exactly astern. In a word, the position of the whale's eyes corresponds to that of a man's ears; and you may fancy, for yourself, how it would fare with you, did you sideways survey objects through your ears. You would find that you could only command some thirty degrees of vision in advance of the straight side-line of sight; and about thirty more behind it. If your bitterest foe8 were walking straight towards you, with dagger9 uplifted in broad day, you would not be able to see him, any more than if he were stealing upon you from behind. In a word, you would have two backs, so to speak; but, at the same time, also, two fronts (side fronts): for what is it that makes the front of a man-- what, indeed, but his eyes?
Moreover, while in most other animals that I can now think of, the eyes are so planted as imperceptibly to blend their visual power, so as to produce one picture and not two to the brain; the peculiar position of the whale's eyes, effectually divided as they are by many cubic feet of solid head, which towers between them like a great mountain separating two lakes in valleys; this, of course, must wholly separate the impressions which each independent organ imparts. The whale, therefore, must see one distinct picture on this side, and another distinct picture on that side; while all between must be profound darkness and nothingness to him. Man may, in effect, be said to look out on the world from a sentry-box with two joined sashes for his window. But with the whale, these two sashes are separately inserted, making two distinct windows, but sadly impairing10 the view. This peculiarity11 of the whale's eyes is a thing always to be borne in mind in the fishery; and to be remembered by the reader in some subsequent scenes.
A curious and most puzzling question might be started concerning this visual matter as touching12 the Leviathan. But I must be content with a hint. So long as a man's eyes are open in the light, the act of seeing is involuntary; that is, he cannot then help mechanically seeing whatever objects are before him. Nevertheless, any one's experience will teach him, that though he can take in an undiscriminating sweep of things at one glance, it is quite impossible for him, attentively13, and completely, to examine any two things--however large or however small-- at one and the same instant of time; never mind if they lie side by side and touch each other. But if you now come to separate these two objects, and surround each by a circle of profound darkness; then, in order to see one of them, in such a manner as to bring your mind to bear on it, the other will be utterly14 excluded from your contemporary consciousness. How is it, then, with the whale? True, both his eyes, in themselves, must simultaneously15 act; but is his brain so much more comprehensive, combining, and subtle than man's, that he can at the same moment of time attentively examine two distinct prospects16, one on one side of him, and the other in an exactly opposite direction? If he can, then is it as marvellous a thing in him, as if a man were able simultaneously to go through the demonstrations17 of two distinct problems in Euclid. Nor, strictly18 investigated, is there any incongruity19 in this comparison.
It may be but an idle whim20, but it has always seemed to me, that the extraordinary vacillations of movement displayed by some whales when beset21 by three or four boats; the timidity and liability to queer frights, so common to such whales; I think that all this indirectly22 proceeds from the helpless perplexity of volition23, in which their divided and diametrically opposite powers of vision must involve them.
But the ear of the whale is full as curious as the eye. If you are an entire stranger to their race, you might hunt over these two heads for hours, and never discover that organ. The ear has no external leaf whatever; and into the hole itself you can hardly insert a quill24, so wondrously25 minute is it. It is lodged26 a little behind the eye. With respect to their ears, this important difference is to be observed between the sperm whale and the right. While the ears of the former has an external opening, that of the latter is entirely27 and evenly covered over with a membrane28, so as to be quite imperceptible from without.
Is it not curious, that so vast a being as the whale should see the world through so small an eye, and hear the thunder through an ear which is smaller than a hare's? But if his eyes were broad as the lens of Herschel's great telescope; and his ears capacious as the porches of cathedrals; would that make him any longer of sight, or sharper of hearing? Not at all.--Why then do you try to "enlarge" your mind? Subtilize it.
Let us now with whatever levers and steam-engines we have at hand, cant29 over the sperm whale's head, so, that it may lie bottom up; then, ascending30 by a ladder to the summit, have a peep down the mouth; and were it not that the body is now completely separated from it, with a lantern we might descend31 into the great Kentucky Mammoth32 Cave of his stomach. But let us hold on here by this tooth, and look about us where we are. What a really beautiful and chaste-looking mouth! from floor to ceiling, lined, or rather papered with a glistening33 white membrane, glossy34 as bridal satins.
But come out now, and look at this portentous35 lower jaw, which seems like the long narrow lid of an immense snuff-box, with the hinge at one end, instead of one side. If you pry36 it up, so as to get it overhead, and expose its rows of teeth, it seems a terrific portcullis; and such, alas37! it proves to many a poor wight in the fishery, upon whom these spikes38 fall with impaling39 force. But far more terrible is it to behold, when fathoms40 down in the sea, you see some sulky whale, floating there suspended, with his prodigious41 jaw, some fifteen feet long, hanging straight down at right-angles with his body; for all the world like a ship's jibboom. This whale is not dead; he is only dispirited; out of sorts, perhaps; hypochondriac; and so supine, that the hinges of his jaw have relaxed, leaving him there in that ungainly sort of plight42, a reproach to all his tribe, who must, no doubt, imprecate lock-jaws upon him.
In most cases this lower jaw--being easily unhinged by a practised artist-- is disengaged and hoisted44 on deck for the purpose of extracting the ivory teeth, and furnishing a supply of that hard white whalebone with which the fishermen fashion all sorts of curious articles including canes45, umbrella-stocks, and handles to riding-whips.
With a long, weary hoist43 the jaw is dragged on board, as if it were an anchor; and when the proper time comes-- some few days after the other work--Queequeg, Daggoo, and Tashtego, being all accomplished46 dentists, are set to drawing teeth. With a keen cutting-spade, Queequeg lances the gums; then the jaw is lashed47 down to ringbolts, and a tackle being rigged from aloft, they drag out these teeth, as Michigan oxen drag stumps48 of old oaks out of wild woodlands. There are generally forty-two teeth in all; in old whales, much worn down, but undecayed; nor filled after our artificial fashion. The jaw is afterwards sawn into slabs49, and piled away like joists for building houses.
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sperm
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| n.精子，精液 | |
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behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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pervading
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| v.遍及，弥漫( pervade的现在分词 ) | |
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technically
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| adv.专门地，技术上地 | |
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jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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lashless
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| adj.无睫毛的 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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foe
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| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
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dagger
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| n.匕首，短剑，剑号 | |
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impairing
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| v.损害，削弱( impair的现在分词 ) | |
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peculiarity
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| n.独特性，特色；特殊的东西；怪癖 | |
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touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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attentively
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| adv.聚精会神地；周到地；谛；凝神 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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prospects
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| n.希望，前途(恒为复数) | |
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demonstrations
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| 证明( demonstration的名词复数 )； 表明； 表达； 游行示威 | |
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strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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incongruity
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| n.不协调，不一致 | |
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whim
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| n.一时的兴致，突然的念头；奇想，幻想 | |
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beset
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| v.镶嵌；困扰，包围 | |
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indirectly
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| adv.间接地，不直接了当地 | |
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volition
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| n.意志；决意 | |
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quill
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| n.羽毛管；v.给（织物或衣服）作皱褶 | |
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wondrously
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| adv.惊奇地，非常，极其 | |
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lodged
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| v.存放( lodge的过去式和过去分词 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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membrane
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| n.薄膜，膜皮，羊皮纸 | |
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cant
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| n.斜穿，黑话，猛扔 | |
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ascending
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| adj.上升的，向上的 | |
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descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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mammoth
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| n.长毛象；adj.长毛象似的，巨大的 | |
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glistening
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| adj.闪耀的，反光的v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的现在分词 ) | |
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glossy
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| adj.平滑的；有光泽的 | |
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portentous
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| adj.不祥的，可怕的，装腔作势的 | |
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pry
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| vi.窥(刺)探，打听；vt.撬动(开，起) | |
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alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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spikes
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| n.穗( spike的名词复数 )；跑鞋；（防滑）鞋钉；尖状物v.加烈酒于( spike的第三人称单数 )；偷偷地给某人的饮料加入（更多）酒精（ 或药物）；把尖状物钉入；打乱某人的计划 | |
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impaling
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| 钉在尖桩上( impale的现在分词 ) | |
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fathoms
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| 英寻( fathom的名词复数 ) | |
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prodigious
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| adj.惊人的，奇妙的；异常的；巨大的；庞大的 | |
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plight
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| n.困境，境况，誓约，艰难；vt.宣誓，保证，约定 | |
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hoist
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| n.升高，起重机，推动；v.升起，升高，举起 | |
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hoisted
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| 把…吊起，升起( hoist的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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canes
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| n.（某些植物，如竹或甘蔗的）茎( cane的名词复数 )；（用于制作家具等的）竹竿；竹杖 | |
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accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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lashed
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| adj.具睫毛的v.鞭打( lash的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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48
stumps
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| （被砍下的树的）树桩( stump的名词复数 )； 残肢； （板球三柱门的）柱； 残余部分 | |
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slabs
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| n.厚板，平板，厚片( slab的名词复数 )；厚胶片 | |
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