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In most cases this lower jaw — being easily unhinged by a practised artist — is disengaged and hoisted on deck for the purpose of extracting the ivory teeth , and furnishing a supply of that hard white whalebone with which the fishermen fashion all sorts of curious articles , including canes , umbrella - stocks , and handles to riding - whips . With a long , weary hoist the jaw is dragged on board , as if it were an anchor ; and when the proper time comes — some few days after the other work — Queequeg , Daggoo , and Tashtego , being all accomplished dentists , are set to drawing teeth . With a keen cutting - spade , Queequeg lances the gums ; then the jaw is lashed down to ringbolts , and a tackle being rigged from aloft , they drag out these teeth , as Michigan oxen drag stumps of old oaks out of wild wood lands . There are generally forty - two teeth in all ; in old whales , much worn down , but undecayed ; nor filled after our artificial fashion . The jaw is afterwards sawn into slabs , and piled away like joists for building houses . CHAPTER 75 . The Right Whale’s Head — Contrasted View . Crossing the deck , let us now have a good long look at the Right Whale’s head . As in general shape the noble Sperm Whale’s head may be compared to a Roman war - chariot ( especially in front , where it is so broadly rounded ) ; so , at a broad view , the Right Whale’s head bears a rather inelegant resemblance to a gigantic galliot - toed shoe . Two hundred years ago an old Dutch voyager likened its shape to that of a shoemaker’s last . And in this same last or shoe , that old woman of the nursery tale , with the swarming brood , might very comfortably be lodged , she and all her progeny . But as you come nearer to this great head it begins to assume different aspects , according to your point of view . If you stand on its summit and look at these two F - shaped spoutholes , you would take the whole head for an enormous bass - viol , and these spiracles , the apertures in its sounding - board . Then , again , if you fix your eye upon this strange , crested , comb - like incrustation on the top of the mass — this green , barnacled thing , which the Greenlanders call the “ crown , ” and the Southern fishers the “ bonnet ” of the Right Whale ; fixing your eyes solely on this , you would take the head for the trunk of some huge oak , with a bird’s nest in its crotch . At any rate , when you watch those live crabs that nestle here on this bonnet , such an idea will be almost sure to occur to you ; unless , indeed , your fancy has been fixed by the technical term “ crown ” also bestowed upon it ; in which case you will take great interest in thinking how this mighty monster is actually a diademed king of the sea , whose green crown has been put together for him in this marvellous manner . But if this whale be a king , he is a very sulky looking fellow to grace a diadem . Look at that hanging lower lip ! what a huge sulk and pout is there ! a sulk and pout , by carpenter’s measurement , about twenty feet long and five feet deep ; a sulk and pout that will yield you some 500 gallons of oil and more .
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