🎤016 Moby Full Text Ch 32pt2

FYI:

Melville was paid $150 or…

• £20,250 in today’s money
• roughly $26,000 USD (2025 value) So for Moby-Dick — one of the most significant novels in world literature — he earned about the equivalent of a modest one-time paycheck today. Then British and a reprint brought in
• • a flat advance of £150 (about $703 USD in 1851)
• • half the net profits, but the publisher recouped most costs, leaving Melville only about £38 additional — so his total British earnings were roughly £188 (~$880 USD at the time) Further US printings brought in:
• • Harper printed 2,915 copies initially and sold around 2,300 within 18 months; subsequent reprints sold very slowly.
• Across all U.S. editions during Melville’s life, he earned just $556.37\ast \ast inroyalties—that’stheequivalentof\ast \ast lessthan$16,000 in today’s money So Adjusted for Inflation (2025) he made approximately:
• British earnings (~£188) ≈ £25,000 today ≈ $32,000 USD
• American royalties (~$556)\ast \ast \approx \ast \ast$16,000 USD
  • Combined total ≈ $48,000 USD

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Contents

CHAPTER 32. Cetology. (sec. 2) Footnotes

Wikipedia does a nice job clarifying this chapter if you’re interested.

Melville focuses first on the Sperm Whale, the Grampus, and the Porpoise, then moves down in size in each category, or “Book”

CHAPTER 32. Cetology. (sec. 2)

First: According to magnitude I divide the whales into three primary BOOKS (subdivisible into CHAPTERS), and these shall comprehend them all, both small and large.

I. THE FOLIO WHALE; II. the OCTAVO WHALE; III. the DUODECIMO WHALE.¹

Duodecimo is the green rectangle above, 5” x 7 ⅝” (roughly)

As the type of the FOLIO I present the Sperm Whale; of the OCTAVO, the Grampus; of the DUODECIMO, the Porpoise.

FOLIOS. Among these I here include the following chapters:—I. The_Sperm Whale_; II. the Right Whale; III. the Fin-Back Whale; IV. the_Hump-backed Whale_; V. the Razor Back Whale; VI. the Sulphur Bottom Whale.²

Sperm Whale

BOOK I. (Folio), CHAPTER I. (Sperm Whale).—This whale, among the English of old vaguely known as the Trumpa whale,³ and⁴ the Physeter whale, and the Anvil Headed whale, is the present Cachalot of the French, and the Pottsfich of the Germans, and the Macrocephalus of the Long Words.⁵ He is, without doubt, the largest inhabitant of the globe;⁶ the most formidable of all whales to encounter; the most majestic in aspect; and lastly, by far the most valuable in commerce; he being the only creature from which that valuable substance, spermaceti, is obtained. All his peculiarities will, in many other places, be enlarged upon. It is chiefly with his name that I now have to do. Philologically⁷ considered, it is absurd. Some centuries ago, when the Sperm whale was almost wholly unknown in his own proper individuality, and when his oil was only accidentally obtained from the stranded fish;⁸ in those days spermaceti, it would seem, was popularly supposed to be derived from a creature identical with the one then known in England as the Greenland or Right Whale. It was the idea also, that this same spermaceti⁹ was that quickening humor¹⁰ of the Greenland Whale which the first syllable of the word literally expresses. In those times, also, spermaceti was exceedingly scarce, not being used for light, but only as an ointment and medicament. It was only to be had from the druggists as you nowadays buy an ounce of rhubarb.¹¹ When, as I opine, in the course of time, the true nature of spermaceti became known, its original name was still retained by the dealers; no doubt to enhance its value by a notion so strangely significant of its scarcity. And so the appellation must at last have come to be bestowed upon the whale from which this spermaceti was really derived.

BOOK I. (Folio), CHAPTER II. (Right Whale).—In one respect this is the most venerable of the leviathans, being the one first regularly hunted by man. It yields the article commonly known as whalebone or baleen;¹² and the oil specially known as “whale oil,” an inferior article in commerce. Among the fishermen, he is indiscriminately designated by all the following titles: The Whale; the Greenland Whale; the Black Whale; the Great Whale; the True Whale; the Right Whale. There is a deal of obscurity concerning the identity of the species thus multitudinously baptised. What then is the whale, which I include in the second species of my Folios? It is the Great Mysticetus¹³ of the English naturalists; the Greenland Whale of the English whalemen; the Baleine Ordinaire of the French whalemen; the Growlands Walfish of the Swedes. It is the whale which for more than two centuries past has been hunted by the Dutch and English in the Arctic seas; it is the whale which the American fishermen have long pursued in the Indian ocean, on the Brazil Banks,¹⁴ on the Nor’ West Coast, and various other parts of the world, designated by them Right Whale Cruising Grounds.

Some pretend to see a difference between the Greenland whale of the English and the right whale of the Americans. But they precisely agree in all their grand features; nor has there yet been presented a single determinate fact upon which to ground a radical distinction. It is by endless subdivisions based upon the most inconclusive differences, that some departments of natural history become so repellingly intricate.¹⁵ The right whale will be elsewhere treated of at some length, with reference to elucidating the sperm whale.

BOOK I. (Folio), CHAPTER III. (Fin-Back).—Under this head I reckon a monster which, by the various names of Fin-Back, Tall-Spout, and Long-John, has been seen almost in every sea and is commonly the whale whose distant jet is so often descried by passengers crossing the Atlantic, in the New York packet-tracks.¹⁶ In the length he attains, and in his baleen, the Fin-back resembles the right whale, but is of a less portly girth, and a lighter colour, approaching to olive. His great lips present a cable-like aspect, formed by the intertwisting, slanting folds of large wrinkles. His grand distinguishing feature, the fin, from which he derives his name, is often a conspicuous object. This fin is some three or four feet long, growing vertically from the hinder part of the back, of an angular shape, and with a very sharp pointed end. Even if not the slightest other part of the creature be visible, this isolated fin will, at times, be seen plainly projecting from the surface. When the sea is moderately calm, and slightly marked with spherical ripples, and this gnomon-like fin¹⁷ stands up and casts shadows upon the wrinkled surface, it may well be supposed that the watery circle surrounding it somewhat resembles a dial, with its style and wavy hour-lines graved¹⁸ on it. On that Ahaz-dial¹⁹ the shadow often goes back. The Fin-Back is not gregarious. He seems a whale-hater, as some men are man-haters. Very shy; always going solitary; unexpectedly rising to the surface in the remotest and most sullen waters; his straight and single lofty jet rising like a tall misanthropic spear upon a barren plain; gifted with such wondrous power and velocity in swimming, as to defy all present pursuit from man; this leviathan seems the banished and unconquerable Cain of his race, bearing for his mark that style upon his back. From having the baleen²⁰ in his mouth, the Fin-Back is sometimes included with the right whale, among a theoretic species denominated Whalebone whales, that is, whales with baleen. Of these so called Whalebone whales, there would seem to be several varieties, most of which, however, are little known. Broad-nosed whales and beaked whales; pike-headed whales; bunched whales; under-jawed whales and rostrated whales,²¹ are the fishermen’s names for a few sorts.

In connection with this appellative of “Whalebone whales,” it is of great importance to mention, that however such a nomenclature may be convenient in facilitating allusions to some kind of whales, yet it is in vain to attempt a clear classification of the Leviathan, founded upon either his baleen, or hump, or fin, or teeth; notwithstanding that those marked parts or features very obviously seem better adapted to afford the basis for a regular system of Cetology than any other detached bodily distinctions, which the whale, in his kinds, presents. How then? The baleen, hump, back-fin, and teeth; these are things whose peculiarities are indiscriminately dispersed among all sorts of whales, without any regard to what may be the nature of their structure in other and more essential particulars. Thus, the sperm whale and the humpbacked whale, each has a hump; but there the similitude ceases. Then, this same humpbacked whale and the Greenland whale, each of these has baleen; but there again the similitude ceases. And it is just the same with the other parts above mentioned. In various sorts of whales, they form such irregular combinations; or, in the case of any one of them detached, such an irregular isolation; as utterly to defy all general methodization formed upon such a basis. On this rock every one of the whale-naturalists has split.

But it may possibly be conceived that, in the internal parts of the whale, in his anatomy—there, at least, we shall be able to hit the right classification. Nay; what thing, for example, is there in the Greenland whale’s anatomy more striking than his baleen? Yet we have seen that by his baleen it is impossible correctly to classify the Greenland whale. And if you descend into the bowels of the various leviathans, why there you will not find distinctions a fiftieth part as available to the systematizer as those external ones already enumerated. What then remains? nothing but to take hold of the whales bodily, in their entire liberal volume, and boldly sort them that way. And this is the Bibliographical system²² here adopted; and it is the only one that can possibly succeed, for it alone is practicable. To proceed.

BOOK I. (Folio) CHAPTER IV. (Hump Back).—This whale is often seen on the northern American coast. He has been frequently captured there, and towed into harbor. He has a great pack on him like a peddler; or you might call him the Elephant and Castle whale.²³ At any rate, the popular name for him does not sufficiently distinguish him, since the sperm whale also has a hump though a smaller one. His oil is not very valuable. He has baleen. He is the most gamesome and light-hearted of all the whales, making more gay foam and white water generally than any other of them.

BOOK I. (Folio), CHAPTER V. (Razor Back).—Of this whale little is known but his name. I have seen him at a distance off Cape Horn. Of a retiring nature, he eludes both hunters and philosophers. Though no coward, he has never yet shown any part of him but his back, which rises in a long sharp ridge. Let him go. I know little more of him, nor does anybody else.

BOOK I. (Folio), CHAPTER VI. (Sulphur Bottom).—Another retiring gentleman, with a brimstone belly, doubtless got by scraping along the Tartarian tiles²⁴ in some of his profounder divings. He is seldom seen; at least I have never seen him except in the remoter southern seas, and then always at too great a distance to study his countenance. He is never chased; he would run away with rope-walks of line.²⁵ Prodigies are told of him. Adieu, Sulphur Bottom! I can say nothing more that is true of ye, nor can the oldest Nantucketer.

Thus ends BOOK I. (Folio), and now begins BOOK II. (Octavo).

OCTAVOES.§²⁶—These embrace the whales of middling magnitude, among which present may be numbered:—I., the Grampus; II., the Black Fish; III., the Narwhale; IV., the Thrasher; V., the Killer.

§ Why this book of whales is not denominated the Quarto is very plain. Because, while the whales of this order, though smaller than those of the former order, nevertheless retain a proportionate likeness to them in figure, yet the bookbinder’s Quarto volume in its dimensioned form does not preserve the shape of the Folio volume, but the Octavo volume does.

Risso’s Dolphin is another name for Grampus

BOOK II. (Octavo), CHAPTER I. (Grampus).—Though this fish, whose loud sonorous breathing, or rather blowing, has furnished a proverb to landsmen,²⁷ is so well known a denizen of the deep, yet is he not popularly classed among whales. But possessing all the grand distinctive features of the leviathan, most naturalists have recognised him for one. He is of moderate octavo size, varying from fifteen to twenty-five feet in length, and of corresponding dimensions round the waist. He swims in herds; he is never regularly hunted, though his oil is considerable in quantity, and pretty good for light. By some fishermen his approach is regarded as premonitory of the advance of the great sperm whale.

The Black Fish Family A group dolphins that usually larger than most dolphins, mostly black in color and some are formidable hunters.
All the Black fish dolphins have the anchor/W patch except Killer whales

BOOK II. (Octavo), CHAPTER II. (Black Fish).—I give the popular fishermen’s names for all these fish, for generally they are the best. Where any name happens to be vague or inexpressive, I shall say so, and suggest another. I do so now, touching the Black Fish, so-called, because blackness is the rule among almost all whales. So, call him the Hyena Whale, if you please.²⁸ His voracity is well known, and from the circumstance that the inner angles of his lips are curved upwards, he carries an everlasting Mephistophelean grin on his face. This whale averages some sixteen or eighteen feet in length. He is found in almost all latitudes. He has a peculiar way of showing his dorsal hooked fin in swimming, which looks something like a Roman nose. When not more profitably employed, the sperm whale hunters sometimes capture the Hyena whale, to keep up the supply of cheap oil for domestic employment—as some frugal housekeepers, in the absence of company, and quite alone by themselves, burn unsavory tallow instead of odorous wax. Though their blubber is very thin, some of these whales will yield you upwards of thirty gallons of oil.

BOOK II. (Octavo), CHAPTER III. (Narwhale), that is, Nostril whale.²⁹—Another instance of a curiously named whale, so named I suppose from his peculiar horn being originally mistaken for a peaked nose. The creature is some sixteen feet in length, while its horn averages five feet, though some exceed ten, and even attain to fifteen feet. Strictly speaking, this horn is but a lengthened tusk, growing out from the jaw in a line a little depressed from the horizontal. But it is only found on the sinister side, which has an ill effect, giving its owner something analogous to the aspect of a clumsy left-handed man. What precise purpose this ivory horn or lance answers, it would be hard to say. It does not seem to be used like the blade of the sword-fish and bill-fish;³⁰ though some sailors tell me that the Narwhale employs it for a rake in turning over the bottom of the sea for food. Charley Coffin said it was used for an ice-piercer; for the Narwhale, rising to the surface of the Polar Sea, and finding it sheeted with ice, thrusts his horn up, and so breaks through. But you cannot prove either of these surmises to be correct. My own opinion is, that however this one-sided horn may really be used by the Narwhale—however that may be—it would certainly be very convenient to him for a folder in reading pamphlets. The Narwhale I have heard called the Tusked whale, the Horned whale, and the Unicorn whale. He is certainly a curious example of the Unicornism to be found in almost every kingdom of animated nature. From certain cloistered old authors I have gathered that this same sea-unicorn’s horn was in ancient days regarded as the great antidote against poison, and as such, preparations of it brought immense prices. It was also distilled to a volatile salts for fainting ladies, the same way that the horns of the male deer are manufactured into hartshorn.³¹ Originally it was in itself accounted an object of great curiosity. Black Letter tells me that Sir Martin Frobisher³² on his return from that voyage, when Queen Bess did gallantly wave her jewelled hand to him from a window of Greenwich Palace, as his bold ship sailed down the Thames; “when Sir Martin returned from that voyage,” saith Black Letter, “on bended knees he presented to her highness a prodigious long horn of the Narwhale, which for a long period after hung in the castle at Windsor.” An Irish author avers that the Earl of Leicester, on bended knees, did likewise present to her highness another horn,³³ pertaining to a land beast of the unicorn nature.

The Narwhale has a very picturesque, leopard-like look, being of a milk-white ground colour, dotted with round and oblong spots of black. His oil is very superior, clear and fine; but there is little of it, and he is seldom hunted. He is mostly found in the circumpolar seas.

BOOK II. (Octavo), CHAPTER IV. (Killer).—Of this whale little is precisely known to the Nantucketer, and nothing at all to the professed naturalist. From what I have seen of him at a distance, I should say that he was about the bigness of a grampus. He is very savage—a sort of Feegee fish. He sometimes takes the great Folio whales by the lip, and hangs there like a leech, till the mighty brute is worried to death. The Killer is never hunted. I never heard what sort of oil he has. Exception might be taken to the name bestowed upon this whale, on the ground of its indistinctness. For we are all killers, on land and on sea; Bonapartes and Sharks included.³⁴

BOOK II. (Octavo), CHAPTER V. (Thrasher).—This gentleman is famous for his tail, which he uses for a ferule in thrashing his foes. He mounts the Folio whale’s back, and as he swims, he works his passage by flogging him; as some schoolmasters get along in the world by a similar process. Still less is known of the Thrasher than of the Killer. Both are outlaws, even in the lawless seas.³⁵

Thus ends BOOK II. (Octavo), and begins BOOK III. (Duodecimo).

DUODECIMOES.—These include the smaller whales. I. The Huzza Porpoise. II. The Algerine Porpoise. III. The Mealy-mouthed Porpoise.

To those who have not chanced specially to study the subject, it may possibly seem strange, that fishes not commonly exceeding four or five feet should be marshalled among WHALES—a word, which, in the popular sense, always conveys an idea of hugeness. But the creatures set down above as Duodecimoes are infallibly whales, by the terms of my definition of what a whale is—i.e. a spouting fish, with a horizontal tail.

Text Appearing After Image in orig. source: Common dolphin Delphinus dclphis Linnaeus, 1758 Common dolphins frequently assemble into enormous herds, a thousand or more individuals, which create a highly visible ruckus as they travel. This was likely the species that Melville had in mind when he wrote of dolphins (^the huzza porpoise) “which upon the sea keep tossing themselves to heaven like caps in a Fourth of July crowd.” They are often very active, with many animals leaping clear of the water at a given time. They are eager and proficient bow riders and may approach a vessel from a considerable distance to hitch a ride. Once on the bow they may ride for long periods of time. We are inclined to agree with Melville’s further observation that “if you yourself can withhold three cheers at beholding these vivacious fish then heaven help ye, the spirit of godly gamesomeness is not in ye.” (Image from page 33 of “Cetaceans of the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary” (1987))

BOOK III. (Duodecimo), CHAPTER 1. (Huzza Porpoise).—This is the common porpoise found almost all over the globe. The name is of my own bestowal; for there are more than one sort of porpoises, and something must be done to distinguish them. I call him thus, because he always swims in hilarious shoals, which upon the broad sea keep tossing themselves to heaven like caps in a Fourth-of-July crowd. Their appearance is generally hailed with delight by the mariner. Full of fine spirits, they invariably come from the breezy billows to windward. They are the lads that always live before the wind. They are accounted a lucky omen. If you yourself can withstand three cheers at beholding these vivacious fish, then heaven help ye; the spirit of godly gamesomeness is not in ye. A well-fed, plump Huzza Porpoise will yield you one good gallon of good oil. But the fine and delicate fluid extracted from his jaws is exceedingly valuable. It is in request among jewellers and watchmakers. Sailors put it on their hones.³⁶ Porpoise meat is good eating, you know. It may never have occurred to you that a porpoise spouts. Indeed, his spout is so small that it is not very readily discernible. But the next time you have a chance, watch him; and you will then see the great Sperm whale himself in miniature.

BOOK III. (Duodecimo), CHAPTER II. (Algerine Porpoise).—A pirate.³⁷ Very savage. He is only found, I think, in the Pacific. He is somewhat larger than the Huzza Porpoise, but much of the same general make. Provoke him, and he will buckle to a shark. I have lowered for him many times, but never yet saw him captured.

BOOK III. (Duodecimo), CHAPTER III. (Mealy-mouthed Porpoise).—The largest kind of Porpoise; and only found in the Pacific, so far as it is known. The only English name, by which he has hitherto been designated, is that of the fishers—Right-Whale Porpoise, from the circumstance that he is chiefly found in the vicinity of that Folio. In shape, he differs in some degree from the Huzza Porpoise, being of a less rotund and jolly girth; indeed, he is of quite a neat and gentleman-like figure. He has no fins on his back (most other porpoises have), he has a lovely tail, and sentimental Indian eyes of a hazel hue. But his mealy-mouth spoils all. Though his entire back down to his side fins is of a deep sable, yet a boundary line, distinct as the mark in a ship’s hull, called the “bright waist,”³⁸ that line streaks him from stem to stern, with two separate colours, black above and white below. The white comprises part of his head, and the whole of his mouth, which makes him look as if he had just escaped from a felonious visit to a meal-bag. A most mean and mealy aspect! His oil is much like that of the common porpoise.

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Beyond the DUODECIMO, this system does not proceed, inasmuch as the Porpoise is the smallest of the whales. Above, you have all the Leviathans of note. But there are a rabble of uncertain, fugitive, half-fabulous whales, which, as an American whaleman, I know by reputation, but not personally. I shall enumerate them by their fore-castle appellations; for possibly such a list may be valuable to future investigators, who may complete what I have here but begun. If any of the following whales, shall hereafter be caught and marked, then he can readily be incorporated into this System, according to his Folio, Octavo, or Duodecimo magnitude:—The Bottle-Nose Whale; the Junk Whale; the Pudding-Headed Whale; the Cape Whale; the Leading Whale; the Cannon Whale; the Scragg Whale; the Coppered Whale; the Elephant Whale; the Iceberg Whale; the Quog Whale; the Blue Whale; etc. From Icelandic, Dutch, and old English authorities, there might be quoted other lists of uncertain whales, blessed with all manner of uncouth names. But I omit them as altogether obsolete; and can hardly help suspecting them for mere sounds, full of Leviathanism, but signifying nothing.³⁹

Finally: It was stated at the outset, that this system would not be here, and at once, perfected. You cannot but plainly see that I have kept my word. But I now leave my cetological System standing thus unfinished, even as the great Cathedral of Cologne⁴⁰ was left, with the crane still standing upon the top of the uncompleted tower. For small erections may be finished by their first architects; grand ones, true ones, ever leave the copestone to posterity. God keep me⁴¹ from ever completing anything. This whole book is but a draught—nay, but the draught of a draught. Oh, Time, Strength, Cash, and Patience!

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Footnotes

Footnotes

1. This demarcation in size is based on standard folded-paper sizes as used for book binding. A FOLIO is ≈12” x 19”, a QUARTO is ≈ 9.5” x 12”, an OCTAVO is ≈6” x 9”, and a DUODECEMO is ≈5” x 7 ⅜”. Melville does not use the Quarto measurement because, he says, the Quarto fold fundamentally changes the look of the pages and whales really just look like…well…whales. So using a metaphor that changes that visual reference would be an error. ↩

2. Again, most of what Melville shares here comes from an encyclopedic source plus - Thomas Beale, who wrote The Natural History of the Sperm Whale, Frederick Debell Bennett, who wrote the Narrative of a Whaling Voyage Round the Globe and Melville as well, further relied upon the writings of the great naturalist John Hunter, especially his Observations on the Structure and Oeconomy of Whales.. However, as he said in the first half of this chapter, he’s not the creator, simply the architect of this organizational system. ↩

3. Trumpa whale: *The origin of this name for the sperm whale is, indeed, “vaguely known.” The OED cites only two appearances of the word: the first in Thomas Edge’s 1625 narrative in Purchas; the second here in Moby-Dick. An online search yields only two other appearances of “Trumpa,” neither earlier than Edge and both also drawing from Edge. Melville’s acquaintance with Edge’s word may have been instigated as early as 1848 with his reading of Sir Thomas Browne’s Vulgar Errors. ↩

4. Part 2 of above note: Browne uses “Trumpa” as a name for the spermaceti whale but conceals his source as one of the “Greenland describers in Purchas” (see note on Edge in Extracts). The OED’s etymology for “trumpa” is the French “trompeau” (trumpet), which does little to explain the oddity of the noun. Intrigued by the word, Melville may have sought its source in Harris’s 1705 reprint of Edge. Here, Edge lists “the Trumpa whale” as the third category of whales in his eight-species classification of whales (also mentioned by Browne). Edge’s whale classification, with its “vaguely known” term for the sperm whale, contributed to Melville’s more facetious “cetology.”* (from melville.electroniclibrary.org) ↩

5. Physeter whale etc. - Physeter (Linnæus’s term) is Greek for “blower”; the German Pottfisch is literally “pot fish”; Macrocephalus is Greek for “large head”; the Long Words are for scientific pedants, satirized here and in other chapters. (from melville.electroniclibrary.org) ↩

6. If that made you stop and wonder, yes, the Blue Whale (known by 1920) should be at the top of the list. Actually, so should the Fin Whale. But why are we reading this book—we’re reading it because Melville loves himself some Sperm Whales, so that’s got to be the top of the list. Remember, he’s clear - this is HIS classification system of which he’s the architect, so if he leaves the Blue Whale out, that’s okay. ↩

7. Has to do with the study of the relationships and context of languages check this ↩

8. it has striations on it’s body check this ↩

9. Don’t worry if you don’t understand what this is, yet. You’ll get all that information in due time. ↩

10. quickening - they used to call the moment when a fetus can first be felt moving by the mother, humor - medieval medical term under the belief that there were several humors moving around the body: blood and the rest; so, literally, Melville is saying, folks thought the spermicetti oil was, in fact, just a bunch of whale sperm. why is it called spermicetti ↩

11. Apparently, rhubarb works as a laxative! Did not know that! ↩

12. Baleen isn’t really a bone, it’s keratin, like fingernails and hair. Details on Baleen will appear in Chapter 75. Can’t wait! ↩

13. Mysticetus: Used by Linnæus, derived from Aristotle, and meaning “moustached sea-monster.” (from melville.electroniclibrary.org) ↩

14. Brazil Banks: the large elevated area of the sea floor, rich in fish and other marine life, off Brazil; see also chapter 58. (from melville.electroniclibrary.org) ↩

15. ”repellingly intricate” - I found this hilarious coming from Melville in THIS chapter. ↩

16. packet-tracks: routes sailed by swift ships carrying passengers, merchandise, and mail. (from melville.electroniclibrary.org) ↩

17. gnomon-like fin - the gnomon is the pointy bit of a sundial which casts the shadow - so the fin is tall and thin on an acute angle. ↩

18. graved - ENgraved ↩

19. Ahaz-dial: In Isaiah 38.8, the shadow on the sundial of Ahaz, idol-worshipping king of Judah, goes backward. Ishmael is saying that the whale’s motions make the shadow move erratically. (from melville.electroniclibrary.org) ↩

20. baleen - already mentioned before, this is xxxxx ↩

21. pike-headed whales; bunched whales; under-jawed whales and rostrated whales: The four whale adjectives, in order, mean pointed like the weapon called a pike; humped; with a protruding lower jaw; and with a long beak or snout. (from melville.electroniclibrary.org) ↩

22. Bibliographical system: Explicitly (as if the joke might not already be clear), Ishmael parodies scientific classification by arbitrarily adapting the bibliographic system properly used for books in order to classify whales. (from melville.electroniclibrary.org) ↩

23. Elephant and Castle: An elephant carrying a large howdah in the shape of a castle, a popular image that appears, for example, on the sign of the old pub that gave its name to a section of London. (from melville.electroniclibrary.org) ↩

24. Tartarian tiles: The so-called Sulphur Bottom whale gets its sulfur-yellow belly from scraping the roof tiles of Tartarus, hell in Greek myth. (from melville.electroniclibrary.org) ↩

25. Rope-walks: the looooooonnnnnngggg sheds used to cable twine into ship’s ropes. How to cable yarn. ↩

26. from Melville.electroniclibrary.org: Why this book of whales is not denominated the Quarto is very plain: “Plain” to a bibliographer or book historian but not necessarily to most modern readers. Quartos are folded twice to give eight smaller pages, and so on. But the Quarto differs in proportion from the other book-sizes; it is squarish rather than longish. Ishmael’s facetious reasoning is that since all sizes of whales have basically the same shape, the Quarto shaped book cannot be an adequate category for the next smaller type of whale, so Ishmael arbitrarily eliminates the category from his already facetiously arbitrary classifications, making his “system” all the less systematic, and all the more comic. ↩

27. a proverb to landsmen: “Snores like a grampus” was a common expression (from melville.electroniclibrary.org—I certainly never heard that one). ↩

28. Hyena Whale, if you please: from the supposed grin of the “laughing” Hyena; see also Ch. 49. ↩

29. Nostril whale: A fanciful etymology; “nar” is from the Old Norse for corpse (alluding to the whale’s whiteness or white spots). However, assuming that the narwhale’s single tusk had been confused for its nose, Ishmael traces the root to “nares,” Latin for nostrils. (from melville.electroniclibrary.org) ↩

30. bill-fish: Any of several species, such as marlin and sailfish, whose snout is elongated into a bill, or spear. (from melville.electroniclibrary.org) ↩

31. hartshorn: ammonia-based “smelling salts” originally made from deer horn. ↩

32. Black Letter tells me that Sir Martin Frobisher: “Black Letter” is a distinctive gothic typeface in the earliest of print books, but here refers to Richard Hakluyt, whose Principal Navigations (1598) reprints, among others, the voyage accounts by the sixteenth-century English navigator and explorer of Canada’s Atlantic coast, Martin Frobisher. (from melville.electroniclibrary.org) ↩

33. another horn … of the unicorn nature: Here, the unicorn’s horn is sexually suggestive. Melville no doubt invented the Irish author, who implies that the Earl of Leicester, a favorite of Queen Elizabeth, was also her lover. (from melville.electroniclibrary.org) ↩

34. Bonapartes and Sharks included: Napoleon had been finally defeated at Waterloo in 1815, but the legend of his cunning and greatness grew in the following years. After his death, other Bonapartes continued to seize power in Europe, including Louis Bonaparte (Melville’s “Louis the Devil”), president, then emperor of France during Melville’s publishing years. Pairing Napoleon’s family name with the capitalized Sharks, Melville hints at the betrayal of democracy, suggesting that greatness is sharkishness in disguise. In Ch. 94, Fleece, the cook, delivers a similar message about humans as sharks. (from melville.electroniclibrary.org) ↩

35. REVISION NARRATIVE: even in the lawless seas // In the British edition, “the” has been dropped to give “even in lawless seas.” The shift has significance, for with “the lawless seas,” all seas are lawless, while “lawless seas” suggests that only certain seas are lawless. To compare American and British pages, click the thumbnails in the right margin. (from melville.electroniclibrary.org) ↩

36. sharpening stones used to hone blades. ↩

37. (Algerine Porpoise). A pirate: The fierce, state-supported Algerian and Tunisian pirates of the North African coast, against whom the United States fought the Tripolitan War of 1801–1805, were finally suppressed by the French in 1830. A “pirate” is also an unauthorized reprint of a writer’s publication, which might extend the author’s reputation though at the expense of revenues. (from melville.electroniclibrary.org) ↩

38. bright waist A broad band of white paint encircling the hull. On it black squares were sometimes painted to deceive pirates, who, from a distance, might mistake them for gun-ports and believe that the vessel was armed with cannon. (from melville.electroniclibrary.org) ↩

39. mere sounds, full of Leviathanism, but signifying nothing: Echoing Macbeth 5.5, “Life’s but a walking shadow, … a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing.” (from melville.electroniclibrary.org) ↩

40. great Cathedral of Cologne: Melville visited this famously unfinished Prussian church in 1849, and may have read that the crane had been there for two centuries. As sources for the ideas in this passage, Mansfield and Vincent suggest Goethe, and Parker cites a review of Wordsworth’s The Prelude. The crane atop one of the unfinished cathedral towers is visible in Jan van der Heyden’s A View in Cologne. The cathedral remained unfinished for another thirty years after the publication of Moby-Dick, as the annotation on an albumin print of the Cologne Cathedral attests: “Oct 15th 1880 the completion of the cathedral was celebrated.” (from melville.electroniclibrary.org) ↩

41. REVISION NARRATIVE: God keep me // The British revision to “Heaven keep me” eliminates the use of the Lord’s name in vain. To compare American and British pages, click the thumbnails in the right margin. (from melville.electroniclibrary.org) ↩