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In addition to those fine engravings from Garnery , there are two other French engravings worthy of note , by some one who subscribes himself “ H . Durand . ” One of them , though not precisely adapted to our present purpose , nevertheless deserves mention on other accounts . It is a quiet noon - scene among the isles of the Pacific ; a French whaler anchored , inshore , in a calm , and lazily taking water on board ; the loosened sails of the ship , and the long leaves of the palms in the background , both drooping together in the breezeless air . The effect is very fine , when considered with reference to its presenting the hardy fishermen under one of their few aspects of oriental repose . The other engraving is quite a different affair : the ship hove - to upon the open sea , and in the very heart of the Leviathanic life , with a Right Whale alongside ; the vessel ( in the act of cutting - in ) hove over to the monster as if to a quay ; and a boat , hurriedly pushing off from this scene of activity , is about giving chase to whales in the distance . The harpoons and lances lie levelled for use ; three oarsmen are just setting the mast in its hole ; while from a sudden roll of the sea , the little craft stands half - erect out of the water , like a rearing horse . From the ship , the smoke of the torments of the boiling whale is going up like the smoke over a village of smithies ; and to windward , a black cloud , rising up with earnest of squalls and rains , seems to quicken the activity of the excited seamen . CHAPTER 57 . Of Whales in Paint ; in Teeth ; in Wood ; in Sheet - Iron ; in Stone ; in Mountains ; in Stars . On Tower - hill , as you go down to the London docks , you may have seen a crippled beggar ( or kedger , as the sailors say ) holding a painted board before him , representing the tragic scene in which he lost his leg . There are three whales and three boats ; and one of the boats ( presumed to contain the missing leg in all its original integrity ) is being crunched by the jaws of the foremost whale . Any time these ten years , they tell me , has that man held up that picture , and exhibited that stump to an incredulous world . But the time of his justification has now come . His three whales are as good whales as were ever published in Wapping , at any rate ; and his stump as unquestionable a stump as any you will find in the western clearings . But , though for ever mounted on that stump , never a stump - speech does the poor whaleman make ; but , with downcast eyes , stands ruefully contemplating his own amputation . Throughout the Pacific , and also in Nantucket , and New Bedford , and Sag Harbor , you will come across lively sketches of whales and whaling - scenes , graven by the fishermen themselves on Sperm Whale - teeth , or ladies ’ busks wrought out of the Right Whale - bone , and other like skrimshander articles , as the whalemen call the numerous little ingenious contrivances they elaborately carve out of the rough material , in their hours of ocean leisure . Some of them have little boxes of dentistical - looking implements , specially intended for the skrimshandering business . But , in general , they toil with their jack - knives alone ; and , with that almost omnipotent tool of the sailor , they will turn you out anything you please , in the way of a mariner’s fancy .
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