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1Here, now, are two great whales, laying their heads together; let us join them, and lay together our own. Of the grand
2order of folio leviathans, the Sperm Whale and the Right Whale are by far the most noteworthy. They are the only whales
3regularly hunted by man. To the Nantucketer, they present the two extremes of all the known varieties of the whale. As
4the external difference between them is mainly observable in their heads; and as a head of each is this moment hanging
5from the Pequod's side; and as we may freely go from one to the other, by merely stepping across the deck:--where, I
6should like to know, will you obtain a better chance to study practical cetology than here? In the first place, you are
7struck by the general contrast between these heads. Both are massive enough in all conscience; but there is a certain
8mathematical symmetry in the Sperm Whale's which the Right Whale's sadly lacks. There is more character in the Sperm
9Whale's head. As you behold it, you involuntarily yield the immense superiority to him, in point of pervading dignity.
10In the present instance, too, this dignity is heightened by the pepper and salt colour of his head at the summit, giving
11token of advanced age and large experience. In short, he is what the fishermen technically call a "grey-headed whale."
12Let us now note what is least dissimilar in these heads--namely, the two most important organs, the eye and the ear. Far
13back on the side of the head, and low down, near the angle of either whale's jaw, if you narrowly search, you will at
14last see a lashless eye, which you would fancy to be a young colt's eye; so out of all proportion is it to the magnitude
15of the head. Now, from this peculiar sideway position of the whale's eyes, it is plain that he can never see an object
16which is exactly ahead, no more than he can one exactly astern. In a word, the position of the whale's eyes corresponds
17to that of a man's ears; and you may fancy, for yourself, how it would fare with you, did you sideways survey objects
18through your ears. You would find that you could only command some thirty degrees of vision in advance of the straight
19side-line of sight; and about thirty more behind it. If your bitterest foe were walking straight towards you, with
20dagger uplifted in broad day, you would not be able to see him, any more than if he were stealing upon you from behind.
21In a word, you would have two backs, so to speak; but, at the same time, also, two fronts (side fronts): for what is it
22that makes the front of a man--what, indeed, but his eyes? Moreover, while in most other animals that I can now think
23of, the eyes are so planted as imperceptibly to blend their visual power, so as to produce one picture and not two to
24the brain; the peculiar position of the whale's eyes, effectually divided as they are by many cubic feet of solid head,
25which towers between them like a great mountain separating two lakes in valleys; this, of course, must wholly separate
26the impressions which each independent organ imparts. The whale, therefore, must see one distinct picture on this side,
27and another distinct picture on that side; while all between must be profound darkness and nothingness to him. Man may,
28in effect, be said to look out on the world from a sentry-box with two joined sashes for his window. But with the whale,
29these two sashes are separately inserted, making two distinct windows, but sadly impairing the view. This peculiarity of
30the whale's eyes is a thing always to be borne in mind in the fishery; and to be remembered by the reader in some
31subsequent scenes. A curious and most puzzling question might be started concerning this visual matter as touching the
32Leviathan. 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
33involuntary; that is, he cannot then help mechanically seeing whatever objects are before him. Nevertheless, any one's
34experience will teach him, that though he can take in an undiscriminating sweep of things at one glance, it is quite
35impossible for him, attentively, and completely, to examine any two things--however large or however small--at one and
36the same instant of time; never mind if they lie side by side and touch each other. But if you now come to separate
37these two objects, and surround each by a circle of profound darkness; then, in order to see one of them, in such a
38manner as to bring your mind to bear on it, the other will be utterly excluded from your contemporary consciousness. How
39is it, then, with the whale? True, both his eyes, in themselves, must simultaneously act; but is his brain so much more
40comprehensive, combining, and subtle than man's, that he can at the same moment of time attentively examine two distinct
41prospects, one on one side of him, and the other in an exactly opposite direction? If he can, then is it as marvellous a
42thing in him, as if a man were able simultaneously to go through the demonstrations of two distinct problems in Euclid.
43Nor, strictly investigated, is there any incongruity in this comparison. It may be but an idle whim, but it has always
44seemed to me, that the extraordinary vacillations of movement displayed by some whales when beset by three or four
45boats; the timidity and liability to queer frights, so common to such whales; I think that all this indirectly proceeds
46from the helpless perplexity of volition, in which their divided and diametrically opposite powers of vision must
47involve them. But the ear of the whale is full as curious as the eye. If you are an entire stranger to their race, you
48might hunt over these two heads for hours, and never discover that organ. The ear has no external leaf whatever; and
49into the hole itself you can hardly insert a quill, so wondrously minute is it. It is lodged a little behind the eye.
50With respect to their ears, this important difference is to be observed between the sperm whale and the right. While the
51ear of the former has an external opening, that of the latter is entirely and evenly covered over with a membrane, so as
52to be quite imperceptible from without. Is it not curious, that so vast a being as the whale should see the world
53through so small an eye, and hear the thunder through an ear which is smaller than a hare's? But if his eyes were broad
54as the lens of Herschel's great telescope; and his ears capacious as the porches of cathedrals; would that make him any
55longer of sight, or sharper of hearing? Not at all.--Why then do you try to "enlarge" your mind? Subtilize it. Let us
56now with whatever levers and steam-engines we have at hand, cant over the sperm whale's head, that it may lie bottom up;
57then, ascending by a ladder to the summit, have a peep down the mouth; and were it not that the body is now completely
58separated from it, with a lantern we might descend into the great Kentucky Mammoth Cave of his stomach. But let us hold
59on here by this tooth, and look about us where we are. What a really beautiful and chaste-looking mouth! from floor to
60ceiling, lined, or rather papered with a glistening white membrane, glossy as bridal satins. But come out now, and look
61at this portentous lower jaw, which seems like the long narrow lid of an immense snuff-box, with the hinge at one end,
62instead of one side. If you pry it up, so as to get it overhead, and expose its rows of teeth, it seems a terrific
63portcullis; and such, alas! it proves to many a poor wight in the fishery, upon whom these spikes fall with impaling
64force. But far more terrible is it to behold, when fathoms down in the sea, you see some sulky whale, floating there
65suspended, with his prodigious jaw, some fifteen feet long, hanging straight down at right-angles with his body, for all
66the world like a ship's jib-boom. This whale is not dead; he is only dispirited; out of sorts, perhaps; hypochondriac;
67and so supine, that the hinges of his jaw have relaxed, leaving him there in that ungainly sort of plight, a reproach to
68all his tribe, who must, no doubt, imprecate lock-jaws upon him. In most cases this lower jaw--being easily unhinged by
69a practised artist--is disengaged and hoisted on deck for the purpose of extracting the ivory teeth, and furnishing a
70supply of that hard white whalebone with which the fishermen fashion all sorts of curious articles, including canes,
71umbrella-stocks, and handles to riding-whips. With a long, weary hoist the jaw is dragged on board, as if it were an
72anchor; and when the proper time comes--some few days after the other work--Queequeg, Daggoo, and Tashtego, being all
73accomplished dentists, are set to drawing teeth. With a keen cutting-spade, Queequeg lances the gums; then the jaw is
74lashed down to ringbolts, and a tackle being rigged from aloft, they drag out these teeth, as Michigan oxen drag stumps
75of old oaks out of wild wood lands. There are generally forty-two teeth in all; in old whales, much worn down, but
76undecayed; nor filled after our artificial fashion. The jaw is afterwards sawn into slabs, and piled away like joists
77for building houses.
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