📝 您未登录，登录后完成练习可保存成绩、查看最佳记录。
总字符
0
正确字符
0
错误字符
0
错误率
0.00%
耗时(秒)
0
速度 WPM
0
0 / 75
1As the type of the FOLIO I present the Sperm Whale; of the OCTAVO, the Grampus; of the DUODECIMO, the Porpoise. FOLIOS.
2Among these I here include the following chapters:--I. The Sperm Whale; II. the Right Whale; III. the Fin-Back Whale;
3IV. the Hump-backed Whale; V. the Razor Back Whale; VI. the Sulphur Bottom Whale. BOOK I. (Folio), CHAPTER I. (Sperm
4Whale).--This whale, among the English of old vaguely known as the Trumpa whale, and the Physeter whale, and the Anvil
5Headed whale, is the present Cachalot of the French, and the Pottsfich of the Germans, and the Macrocephalus of the Long
6Words. He is, without doubt, the largest inhabitant of the globe; the most formidable of all whales to encounter; the
7most majestic in aspect; and lastly, by far the most valuable in commerce; he being the only creature from which that
8valuable substance, spermaceti, is obtained. All his peculiarities will, in many other places, be enlarged upon. It is
9chiefly with his name that I now have to do. Philologically considered, it is absurd. Some centuries ago, when the Sperm
10whale was almost wholly unknown in his own proper individuality, and when his oil was only accidentally obtained from
11the stranded fish; in those days spermaceti, it would seem, was popularly supposed to be derived from a creature
12identical with the one then known in England as the Greenland or Right Whale. It was the idea also, that this same
13spermaceti was that quickening humor of the Greenland Whale which the first syllable of the word literally expresses. In
14those times, also, spermaceti was exceedingly scarce, not being used for light, but only as an ointment and medicament.
15It was only to be had from the druggists as you nowadays buy an ounce of rhubarb. When, as I opine, in the course of
16time, the true nature of spermaceti became known, its original name was still retained by the dealers; no doubt to
17enhance its value by a notion so strangely significant of its scarcity. And so the appellation must at last have come to
18be bestowed upon the whale from which this spermaceti was really derived. BOOK I. (Folio), CHAPTER II. (Right
19Whale).--In one respect this is the most venerable of the leviathans, being the one first regularly hunted by man. It
20yields the article commonly known as whalebone or baleen; and the oil specially known as "whale oil," an inferior
21article in commerce. Among the fishermen, he is indiscriminately designated by all the following titles: The Whale; the
22Greenland Whale; the Black Whale; the Great Whale; the True Whale; the Right Whale. There is a deal of obscurity
23concerning the identity of the species thus multitudinously baptised. What then is the whale, which I include in the
24second species of my Folios? It is the Great Mysticetus of the English naturalists; the Greenland Whale of the English
25whalemen; the Baleine Ordinaire of the French whalemen; the Growlands Walfish of the Swedes. It is the whale which for
26more than two centuries past has been hunted by the Dutch and English in the Arctic seas; it is the whale which the
27American fishermen have long pursued in the Indian ocean, on the Brazil Banks, on the Nor' West Coast, and various other
28parts of the world, designated by them Right Whale Cruising Grounds. Some pretend to see a difference between the
29Greenland whale of the English and the right whale of the Americans. But they precisely agree in all their grand
30features; nor has there yet been presented a single determinate fact upon which to ground a radical distinction. It is
31by endless subdivisions based upon the most inconclusive differences, that some departments of natural history become so
32repellingly intricate. The right whale will be elsewhere treated of at some length, with reference to elucidating the
33sperm whale. BOOK I. (Folio), CHAPTER III. (Fin-Back).--Under this head I reckon a monster which, by the various names
34of Fin-Back, Tall-Spout, and Long-John, has been seen almost in every sea and is commonly the whale whose distant jet is
35so often descried by passengers crossing the Atlantic, in the New York packet-tracks. In the length he attains, and in
36his baleen, the Fin-back resembles the right whale, but is of a less portly girth, and a lighter colour, approaching to
37olive. His great lips present a cable-like aspect, formed by the intertwisting, slanting folds of large wrinkles. His
38grand distinguishing feature, the fin, from which he derives his name, is often a conspicuous object. This fin is some
39three or four feet long, growing vertically from the hinder part of the back, of an angular shape, and with a very sharp
40pointed end. Even if not the slightest other part of the creature be visible, this isolated fin will, at times, be seen
41plainly projecting from the surface. When the sea is moderately calm, and slightly marked with spherical ripples, and
42this gnomon-like fin stands up and casts shadows upon the wrinkled surface, it may well be supposed that the watery
43circle surrounding it somewhat resembles a dial, with its style and wavy hour-lines graved on it. On that Ahaz-dial the
44shadow often goes back. The Fin-Back is not gregarious. He seems a whale-hater, as some men are man-haters. Very shy;
45always going solitary; unexpectedly rising to the surface in the remotest and most sullen waters; his straight and
46single lofty jet rising like a tall misanthropic spear upon a barren plain; gifted with such wondrous power and velocity
47in swimming, as to defy all present pursuit from man; this leviathan seems the banished and unconquerable Cain of his
48race, bearing for his mark that style upon his back. From having the baleen in his mouth, the Fin-Back is sometimes
49included with the right whale, among a theoretic species denominated Whalebone whales, that is, whales with baleen. Of
50these so called Whalebone whales, there would seem to be several varieties, most of which, however, are little known.
51Broad-nosed whales and beaked whales; pike-headed whales; bunched whales; under-jawed whales and rostrated whales, are
52the fishermen's names for a few sorts. In connection with this appellative of "Whalebone whales," it is of great
53importance to mention, that however such a nomenclature may be convenient in facilitating allusions to some kind of
54whales, yet it is in vain to attempt a clear classification of the Leviathan, founded upon either his baleen, or hump,
55or fin, or teeth; notwithstanding that those marked parts or features very obviously seem better adapted to afford the
56basis for a regular system of Cetology than any other detached bodily distinctions, which the whale, in his kinds,
57presents. How then? The baleen, hump, back-fin, and teeth; these are things whose peculiarities are indiscriminately
58dispersed among all sorts of whales, without any regard to what may be the nature of their structure in other and more
59essential particulars. Thus, the sperm whale and the humpbacked whale, each has a hump; but there the similitude ceases.
60Then, this same humpbacked whale and the Greenland whale, each of these has baleen; but there again the similitude
61ceases. And it is just the same with the other parts above mentioned. In various sorts of whales, they form such
62irregular combinations; or, in the case of any one of them detached, such an irregular isolation; as utterly to defy all
63general methodization formed upon such a basis. On this rock every one of the whale-naturalists has split. But it may
64possibly be conceived that, in the internal parts of the whale, in his anatomy--there, at least, we shall be able to hit
65the right classification. Nay; what thing, for example, is there in the Greenland whale's anatomy more striking than his
66baleen? Yet we have seen that by his baleen it is impossible correctly to classify the Greenland whale. And if you
67descend into the bowels of the various leviathans, why there you will not find distinctions a fiftieth part as available
68to the systematizer as those external ones already enumerated. What then remains? nothing but to take hold of the whales
69bodily, in their entire liberal volume, and boldly sort them that way. And this is the Bibliographical system here
70adopted; and it is the only one that can possibly succeed, for it alone is practicable. To proceed. BOOK I. (Folio)
71CHAPTER IV. (Hump Back).--This whale is often seen on the northern American coast. He has been frequently captured
72there, and towed into harbor. He has a great pack on him like a peddler; or you might call him the Elephant and Castle
73whale. At any rate, the popular name for him does not sufficiently distinguish him, since the sperm whale also has a
74hump though a smaller one. His oil is not very valuable. He has baleen. He is the most gamesome and light-hearted of all
75the whales, making more gay foam and white water generally than any other of them.
🎉 全部完成！共 75 行