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Meantime , Fedallah was calmly eyeing the right whale’s head , and ever and anon glancing from the deep wrinkles there to the lines in his own hand . And Ahab chanced so to stand , that the Parsee occupied his shadow ; while , if the Parsee’s shadow was there at all it seemed only to blend with , and lengthen Ahab’s . As the crew toiled on , Laplandish speculations were bandied among them , concerning all these passing things . CHAPTER 74 . The Sperm Whale’s Head — Contrasted View . Here , now , are two great whales , laying their heads together ; let us join them , and lay together our own . Of the grand order of folio leviathans , the Sperm Whale and the Right Whale are by far the most noteworthy . They are the only whales regularly hunted by man . To the Nantucketer , they present the two extremes of all the known varieties of the whale . As the external difference between them is mainly observable in their heads ; and as a head of each is this moment hanging from the Pequod’s side ; and as we may freely go from one to the other , by merely stepping across the deck : — where , I should like to know , will you obtain a better chance to study practical cetology than here ? In the first place , you are struck by the general contrast between these heads . Both are massive enough in all conscience ; but there is a certain mathematical symmetry in the Sperm Whale’s which the Right Whale’s sadly lacks . There is more character in the Sperm Whale’s head . As you behold it , you involuntarily yield the immense superiority to him , in point of pervading dignity . In the present instance , too , this dignity is heightened by the pepper and salt colour of his head at the summit , giving token of advanced age and large experience . In short , he is what the fishermen technically call a “ grey - headed whale . ” Let us now note what is least dissimilar in these heads — namely , the two most important organs , the eye and the ear . Far back on the side of the head , and low down , near the angle of either whale’s jaw , if you narrowly search , you will at last 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 of the head . Now , from this peculiar sideway position of the whale’s eyes , it is plain that he can never see an object which is exactly ahead , no more than he can one exactly astern . In a word , the position of the whale’s eyes corresponds to that of a man’s ears ; and you may fancy , for yourself , how it would fare with you , did you sideways survey objects through your ears . You would find that you could only command some thirty degrees of vision in advance of the straight side - line of sight ; and about thirty more behind it .
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