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1Other poets have warbled the praises of the soft eye of the antelope, and the lovely plumage of the bird that never
2alights; less celestial, I celebrate a tail. Reckoning the largest sized Sperm Whale's tail to begin at that point of
3the trunk where it tapers to about the girth of a man, it comprises upon its upper surface alone, an area of at least
4fifty square feet. The compact round body of its root expands into two broad, firm, flat palms or flukes, gradually
5shoaling away to less than an inch in thickness. At the crotch or junction, these flukes slightly overlap, then sideways
6recede from each other like wings, leaving a wide vacancy between. In no living thing are the lines of beauty more
7exquisitely defined than in the crescentic borders of these flukes. At its utmost expansion in the full grown whale, the
8tail will considerably exceed twenty feet across. The entire member seems a dense webbed bed of welded sinews; but cut
9into it, and you find that three distinct strata compose it:--upper, middle, and lower. The fibres in the upper and
10lower layers, are long and horizontal; those of the middle one, very short, and running crosswise between the outside
11layers. This triune structure, as much as anything else, imparts power to the tail. To the student of old Roman walls,
12the middle layer will furnish a curious parallel to the thin course of tiles always alternating with the stone in those
13wonderful relics of the antique, and which undoubtedly contribute so much to the great strength of the masonry. But as
14if this vast local power in the tendinous tail were not enough, the whole bulk of the leviathan is knit over with a warp
15and woof of muscular fibres and filaments, which passing on either side the loins and running down into the flukes,
16insensibly blend with them, and largely contribute to their might; so that in the tail the confluent measureless force
17of the whole whale seems concentrated to a point. Could annihilation occur to matter, this were the thing to do it. Nor
18does this--its amazing strength, at all tend to cripple the graceful flexion of its motions; where infantileness of ease
19undulates through a Titanism of power. On the contrary, those motions derive their most appalling beauty from it. Real
20strength never impairs beauty or harmony, but it often bestows it; and in everything imposingly beautiful, strength has
21much to do with the magic. Take away the tied tendons that all over seem bursting from the marble in the carved
22Hercules, and its charm would be gone. As devout Eckerman lifted the linen sheet from the naked corpse of Goethe, he was
23overwhelmed with the massive chest of the man, that seemed as a Roman triumphal arch. When Angelo paints even God the
24Father in human form, mark what robustness is there. And whatever they may reveal of the divine love in the Son, the
25soft, curled, hermaphroditical Italian pictures, in which his idea has been most successfully embodied; these pictures,
26so destitute as they are of all brawniness, hint nothing of any power, but the mere negative, feminine one of submission
27and endurance, which on all hands it is conceded, form the peculiar practical virtues of his teachings. Such is the
28subtle elasticity of the organ I treat of, that whether wielded in sport, or in earnest, or in anger, whatever be the
29mood it be in, its flexions are invariably marked by exceeding grace. Therein no fairy's arm can transcend it. Five
30great motions are peculiar to it. First, when used as a fin for progression; Second, when used as a mace in battle;
31Third, in sweeping; Fourth, in lobtailing; Fifth, in peaking flukes. First: Being horizontal in its position, the
32Leviathan's tail acts in a different manner from the tails of all other sea creatures. It never wriggles. In man or
33fish, wriggling is a sign of inferiority. To the whale, his tail is the sole means of propulsion. Scroll-wise coiled
34forwards beneath the body, and then rapidly sprung backwards, it is this which gives that singular darting, leaping
35motion to the monster when furiously swimming. His side-fins only serve to steer by. Second: It is a little significant,
36that while one sperm whale only fights another sperm whale with his head and jaw, nevertheless, in his conflicts with
37man, he chiefly and contemptuously uses his tail. In striking at a boat, he swiftly curves away his flukes from it, and
38the blow is only inflicted by the recoil. If it be made in the unobstructed air, especially if it descend to its mark,
39the stroke is then simply irresistible. No ribs of man or boat can withstand it. Your only salvation lies in eluding it;
40but if it comes sideways through the opposing water, then partly owing to the light buoyancy of the whale-boat, and the
41elasticity of its materials, a cracked rib or a dashed plank or two, a sort of stitch in the side, is generally the most
42serious result. These submerged side blows are so often received in the fishery, that they are accounted mere child's
43play. Some one strips off a frock, and the hole is stopped. Third: I cannot demonstrate it, but it seems to me, that in
44the whale the sense of touch is concentrated in the tail; for in this respect there is a delicacy in it only equalled by
45the daintiness of the elephant's trunk. This delicacy is chiefly evinced in the action of sweeping, when in maidenly
46gentleness the whale with a certain soft slowness moves his immense flukes from side to side upon the surface of the
47sea; and if he feel but a sailor's whisker, woe to that sailor, whiskers and all. What tenderness there is in that
48preliminary touch! Had this tail any prehensile power, I should straightway bethink me of Darmonodes' elephant that so
49frequented the flower-market, and with low salutations presented nosegays to damsels, and then caressed their zones. On
50more accounts than one, a pity it is that the whale does not possess this prehensile virtue in his tail; for I have
51heard of yet another elephant, that when wounded in the fight, curved round his trunk and extracted the dart. Fourth:
52Stealing unawares upon the whale in the fancied security of the middle of solitary seas, you find him unbent from the
53vast corpulence of his dignity, and kitten-like, he plays on the ocean as if it were a hearth. But still you see his
54power in his play. The broad palms of his tail are flirted high into the air; then smiting the surface, the thunderous
55concussion resounds for miles. You would almost think a great gun had been discharged; and if you noticed the light
56wreath of vapor from the spiracle at his other extremity, you would think that that was the smoke from the touch-hole.
57Fifth: As in the ordinary floating posture of the leviathan the flukes lie considerably below the level of his back,
58they are then completely out of sight beneath the surface; but when he is about to plunge into the deeps, his entire
59flukes with at least thirty feet of his body are tossed erect in the air, and so remain vibrating a moment, till they
60downwards shoot out of view. Excepting the sublime breach--somewhere else to be described--this peaking of the whale's
61flukes is perhaps the grandest sight to be seen in all animated nature. Out of the bottomless profundities the gigantic
62tail seems spasmodically snatching at the highest heaven. So in dreams, have I seen majestic Satan thrusting forth his
63tormented colossal claw from the flame Baltic of Hell. But in gazing at such scenes, it is all in all what mood you are
64in; if in the Dantean, the devils will occur to you; if in that of Isaiah, the archangels. Standing at the mast-head of
65my ship during a sunrise that crimsoned sky and sea, I once saw a large herd of whales in the east, all heading towards
66the sun, and for a moment vibrating in concert with peaked flukes. As it seemed to me at the time, such a grand
67embodiment of adoration of the gods was never beheld, even in Persia, the home of the fire worshippers. As Ptolemy
68Philopater testified of the African elephant, I then testified of the whale, pronouncing him the most devout of all
69beings. For according to King Juba, the military elephants of antiquity often hailed the morning with their trunks
70uplifted in the profoundest silence.
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