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1Now comes the Baling of the Case. But to comprehend it aright, you must know something of the curious internal structure
2of the thing operated upon. Regarding the Sperm Whale's head as a solid oblong, you may, on an inclined plane, sideways
3divide it into two quoins, whereof the lower is the bony structure, forming the cranium and jaws, and the upper an
4unctuous mass wholly free from bones; its broad forward end forming the expanded vertical apparent forehead of the
5whale. At the middle of the forehead horizontally subdivide this upper quoin, and then you have two almost equal parts,
6which before were naturally divided by an internal wall of a thick tendinous substance. *Quoin is not a Euclidean term.
7It belongs to the pure nautical mathematics. I know not that it has been defined before. A quoin is a solid which
8differs from a wedge in having its sharp end formed by the steep inclination of one side, instead of the mutual tapering
9of both sides. The lower subdivided part, called the junk, is one immense honeycomb of oil, formed by the crossing and
10recrossing, into ten thousand infiltrated cells, of tough elastic white fibres throughout its whole extent. The upper
11part, known as the Case, may be regarded as the great Heidelburgh Tun of the Sperm Whale. And as that famous great
12tierce is mystically carved in front, so the whale's vast plaited forehead forms innumerable strange devices for the
13emblematical adornment of his wondrous tun. Moreover, as that of Heidelburgh was always replenished with the most
14excellent of the wines of the Rhenish valleys, so the tun of the whale contains by far the most precious of all his oily
15vintages; namely, the highly-prized spermaceti, in its absolutely pure, limpid, and odoriferous state. Nor is this
16precious substance found unalloyed in any other part of the creature. Though in life it remains perfectly fluid, yet,
17upon exposure to the air, after death, it soon begins to concrete; sending forth beautiful crystalline shoots, as when
18the first thin delicate ice is just forming in water. A large whale's case generally yields about five hundred gallons
19of sperm, though from unavoidable circumstances, considerable of it is spilled, leaks, and dribbles away, or is
20otherwise irrevocably lost in the ticklish business of securing what you can. I know not with what fine and costly
21material the Heidelburgh Tun was coated within, but in superlative richness that coating could not possibly have
22compared with the silken pearl-coloured membrane, like the lining of a fine pelisse, forming the inner surface of the
23Sperm Whale's case. It will have been seen that the Heidelburgh Tun of the Sperm Whale embraces the entire length of the
24entire top of the head; and since--as has been elsewhere set forth--the head embraces one third of the whole length of
25the creature, then setting that length down at eighty feet for a good sized whale, you have more than twenty-six feet
26for the depth of the tun, when it is lengthwise hoisted up and down against a ship's side. As in decapitating the whale,
27the operator's instrument is brought close to the spot where an entrance is subsequently forced into the spermaceti
28magazine; he has, therefore, to be uncommonly heedful, lest a careless, untimely stroke should invade the sanctuary and
29wastingly let out its invaluable contents. It is this decapitated end of the head, also, which is at last elevated out
30of the water, and retained in that position by the enormous cutting tackles, whose hempen combinations, on one side,
31make quite a wilderness of ropes in that quarter. Thus much being said, attend now, I pray you, to that marvellous
32and--in this particular instance--almost fatal operation whereby the Sperm Whale's great Heidelburgh Tun is tapped.
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