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CHAPTER 76 . The Battering - Ram . Ere quitting , for the nonce , the Sperm Whale’s head , I would have you , as a sensible physiologist , simply — particularly remark its front aspect , in all its compacted collectedness . I would have you investigate it now with the sole view of forming to yourself some unexaggerated , intelligent estimate of whatever battering - ram power may be lodged there . Here is a vital point ; for you must either satisfactorily settle this matter with yourself , or for ever remain an infidel as to one of the most appalling , but not the less true events , perhaps anywhere to be found in all recorded history . You observe that in the ordinary swimming position of the Sperm Whale , the front of his head presents an almost wholly vertical plane to the water ; you observe that the lower part of that front slopes considerably backwards , so as to furnish more of a retreat for the long socket which receives the boom - like lower jaw ; you observe that the mouth is entirely under the head , much in the same way , indeed , as though your own mouth were entirely under your chin . Moreover you observe that the whale has no external nose ; and that what nose he has — his spout hole — is on the top of his head ; you observe that his eyes and ears are at the sides of his head , nearly one third of his entire length from the front . Wherefore , you must now have perceived that the front of the Sperm Whale’s head is a dead , blind wall , without a single organ or tender prominence of any sort whatsoever . Furthermore , you are now to consider that only in the extreme , lower , backward sloping part of the front of the head , is there the slightest vestige of bone ; and not till you get near twenty feet from the forehead do you come to the full cranial development . So that this whole enormous boneless mass is as one wad . Finally , though , as will soon be revealed , its contents partly comprise the most delicate oil ; yet , you are now to be apprised of the nature of the substance which so impregnably invests all that apparent effeminacy . In some previous place I have described to you how the blubber wraps the body of the whale , as the rind wraps an orange . Just so with the head ; but with this difference : about the head this envelope , though not so thick , is of a boneless toughness , inestimable by any man who has not handled it . The severest pointed harpoon , the sharpest lance darted by the strongest human arm , impotently rebounds from it . It is as though the forehead of the Sperm Whale were paved with horses ’ hoofs . I do not think that any sensation lurks in it . Bethink yourself also of another thing . When two large , loaded Indiamen chance to crowd and crush towards each other in the docks , what do the sailors do ? They do not suspend between them , at the point of coming contact , any merely hard substance , like iron or wood . No , they hold there a large , round wad of tow and cork , enveloped in the thickest and toughest of ox - hide . That bravely and uninjured takes the jam which would have snapped all their oaken handspikes and iron crow - bars .
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