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“ Not far from the Sea - side , they have a Temple , the Rafters and Beams of which are made of Whale - Bones ; for Whales of a monstrous size are oftentimes cast up dead upon that shore . The Common People imagine , that by a secret Power bestowed by God upon the Temple , no Whale can pass it without immediate death . But the truth of the Matter is , that on either side of the Temple , there are Rocks that shoot two Miles into the Sea , and wound the Whales when they light upon ’ em . They keep a Whale’s Rib of an incredible length for a Miracle , which lying upon the Ground with its convex part uppermost , makes an Arch , the Head of which cannot be reached by a Man upon a Camel’s Back . This Rib ( says John Leo ) is said to have layn there a hundred Years before I saw it . Their Historians affirm , that a Prophet who prophesy’d of Mahomet , came from this Temple , and some do not stand to assert , that the Prophet Jonas was cast forth by the Whale at the Base of the Temple . ” In this Afric Temple of the Whale I leave you , reader , and if you be a Nantucketer , and a whaleman , you will silently worship there . CHAPTER 105 . Does the Whale’s Magnitude Diminish ? — Will He Perish ? Inasmuch , then , as this Leviathan comes floundering down upon us from the head - waters of the Eternities , it may be fitly inquired , whether , in the long course of his generations , he has not degenerated from the original bulk of his sires . But upon investigation we find , that not only are the whales of the present day superior in magnitude to those whose fossil remains are found in the Tertiary system ( embracing a distinct geological period prior to man ) , but of the whales found in that Tertiary system , those belonging to its latter formations exceed in size those of its earlier ones . Of all the pre - adamite whales yet exhumed , by far the largest is the Alabama one mentioned in the last chapter , and that was less than seventy feet in length in the skeleton . Whereas , we have already seen , that the tape - measure gives seventy - two feet for the skeleton of a large sized modern whale . And I have heard , on whalemen’s authority , that Sperm Whales have been captured near a hundred feet long at the time of capture . But may it not be , that while the whales of the present hour are an advance in magnitude upon those of all previous geological periods ; may it not be , that since Adam’s time they have degenerated ? Assuredly , we must conclude so , if we are to credit the accounts of such gentlemen as Pliny , and the ancient naturalists generally . For Pliny tells us of whales that embraced acres of living bulk , and Aldrovandus of others which measured eight hundred feet in length — Rope Walks and Thames Tunnels of Whales ! And even in the days of Banks and Solander , Cooke’s naturalists , we find a Danish member of the Academy of Sciences setting down certain Iceland Whales ( reydan - siskur , or Wrinkled Bellies ) at one hundred and twenty yards ; that is , three hundred and sixty feet . And Lacépède , the French naturalist , in his elaborate history of whales , in the very beginning of his work ( page 3 ) , sets down the Right Whale at one hundred metres , three hundred and twenty - eight feet . And this work was published so late as A . D . 1825 .
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