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By itself this sufficiently illustrates the obvious fact I drive at . But supplementary to this , it has hypothetically occurred to me , that as ordinary fish possess what is called a swimming bladder in them , capable , at will , of distension or contraction ; and as the Sperm Whale , as far as I know , has no such provision in him ; considering , too , the otherwise inexplicable manner in which he now depresses his head altogether beneath the surface , and anon swims with it high elevated out of the water ; considering the unobstructed elasticity of its envelope ; considering the unique interior of his head ; it has hypothetically occurred to me , I say , that those mystical lung - celled honeycombs there may possibly have some hitherto unknown and unsuspected connexion with the outer air , so as to be susceptible to atmospheric distension and contraction . If this be so , fancy the irresistibleness of that might , to which the most impalpable and destructive of all elements contributes . Now , mark . Unerringly impelling this dead , impregnable , uninjurable wall , and this most buoyant thing within ; there swims behind it all a mass of tremendous life , only to be adequately estimated as piled wood is — by the cord ; and all obedient to one volition , as the smallest insect . So that when I shall hereafter detail to you all the specialities and concentrations of potency everywhere lurking in this expansive monster ; when I shall show you some of his more inconsiderable braining feats ; I trust you will have renounced all ignorant incredulity , and be ready to abide by this ; that though the Sperm Whale stove a passage through the Isthmus of Darien , and mixed the Atlantic with the Pacific , you would not elevate one hair of your eye - brow . For unless you own the whale , you are but a provincial and sentimentalist in Truth . But clear Truth is a thing for salamander giants only to encounter ; how small the chances for the provincials then ? What befell the weakling youth lifting the dread goddess’s veil at Lais ? CHAPTER 77 . The Great Heidelburgh Tun . Now comes the Baling of the Case . But to comprehend it aright , you must know something of the curious internal structure of the thing operated upon . Regarding the Sperm Whale’s head as a solid oblong , you may , on an inclined plane , sideways divide it into two quoins , * whereof the lower is the bony structure , forming the cranium and jaws , and the upper an unctuous mass wholly free from bones ; its broad forward end forming the expanded vertical apparent forehead of the whale . At the middle of the forehead horizontally subdivide this upper quoin , and then you have two almost equal parts , which before were naturally divided by an internal wall of a thick tendinous substance . * Quoin is not a Euclidean term . It belongs to the pure nautical mathematics . I know not that it has been defined before . A quoin is a solid which differs from a wedge in having its sharp end formed by the steep inclination of one side , instead of the mutual tapering of both sides .
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