Moby-Dick
- Subtitle
- or, The Whale
An ocean voyage that becomes an immense story of obsession, chance, and the unknowable natural world.
Editions
Table of contents
1. Moby-Dick2. CHAPTER 13. CHAPTER 24. CHAPTER 35. CHAPTER 46. CHAPTER 57. CHAPTER 68. CHAPTER 79. CHAPTER 810. CHAPTER 911. CHAPTER 1012. CHAPTER 1113. CHAPTER 1214. CHAPTER 1315. CHAPTER 1416. CHAPTER 1517. CHAPTER 1618. CHAPTER 1719. CHAPTER 1820. CHAPTER 1921. CHAPTER 2022. CHAPTER 2123. CHAPTER 2224. CHAPTER 2325. CHAPTER 2426. CHAPTER 2527. CHAPTER 2628. CHAPTER 2729. CHAPTER 2830. CHAPTER 2931. CHAPTER 3032. CHAPTER 3133. CHAPTER 3234. BOOK I. (Folio), CHAPTER II. (Right Whale).—In one respect this is the most venerable of the leviathans, being the one first regularly hunted by man. It yields the article commonly known as whalebone or baleen; and the oil specially known as "whale oil," an inferior article in commerce. Among the fishermen, he is indiscriminately designated by all the following titles: The Whale; the Greenland Whale; the Black Whale; the Great Whale; the True Whale; the Right Whale. There is a deal of obscurity concerning the Identity of the species thus multitudinously baptized. What then is the whale, which I include in the second species of my Folios? It is the Great Mysticetus of the English naturalists; the Greenland Whale of the English Whalemen; the Baliene Ordinaire of the French whalemen; the Growlands Walfish of the Swedes. It is the whale which for more than two centuries past has been hunted by the Dutch and English in the Arctic seas; it is the whale which the American fishermen have long pursued in the Indian ocean, on the Brazil Banks, on the Nor' West Coast, and various other parts of the world, designated by them Right Whale Cruising Grounds.35. BOOK I. (Folio), CHAPTER III. (Fin-Back).—Under this head I reckon a monster which, by the various names of Fin-Back, Tall-Spout, and Long-John, has been seen almost in every sea and is commonly the whale whose distant jet is so often descried by passengers crossing the Atlantic, in the New York packet-tracks. In the length he attains, and in his baleen, the Fin-back resembles the right whale, but is of a less portly girth, and a lighter color, approaching to olive. His great lips present a cable-like aspect, formed by the intertwisting, slanting folds of large wrinkles. His grand distinguishing feature, the fin, from which he derives his name, is often a conspicuous object. This fin is some three or four feet long, growing vertically from the hinder part of the back, of an angular shape, and with a very sharp pointed end. Even if not the slightest other part of the creature be visible, this isolated fin will, at times, be seen plainly projecting from the surface. When the sea is moderately calm, and slightly marked with spherical ripples, and this gnomon-like fin stands up and casts shadows upon the wrinkled surface, it may well be supposed that the watery circle surrounding it somewhat resembles a dial, with its style and wavy hour-lines graved on it. On that Ahaz-dial the shadow often goes back. The Fin-Back is not gregarious. He seems a whale-hater, as some men are man-haters. Very shy; always going solitary; unexpectedly rising to the surface in the remotest and most sullen waters; his straight and single lofty jet rising like a tall misanthropic spear upon a barren plain; gifted with such wondrous power and velocity in swimming, as to defy all present pursuit from man; this leviathan seems the banished and unconquerable Cain of his race, bearing for his mark that style upon his back. From having the baleen in his mouth, the Fin-Back is sometimes included with the right whale, among a theoretic species denominated Whalebone whales, that is, whales with baleen. Of these so-called Whalebone whales, there would seem to be several varieties, most of which, however, are little known. Broad-nosed whales and beaked whales; pike-headed whales; bunched whales; under-jawed whales and rostrated whales, are the fisherman's names for a few sorts.36. BOOK I. (Folio), CHAPTER VI. (Sulphur Bottom).—Another retiring gentleman, with a brimstone belly, doubtless got by scraping along the Tartarian tiles in some of his profounder divings. He is seldom seen; at least I have never seen him except in the remoter southern seas, and then always at too great a distance to study his countenance. He is never chased; he would run away with rope-walks of line. Prodigies are told of him. Adieu, Sulphur Bottom! I can say nothing more that is true of ye, nor can the oldest Nantucketer.37. BOOK II. (Octavo), CHAPTER III. (Narwhale), that is, Nostril whale.— Another instance of a curiously named whale, so named I suppose from his peculiar horn being originally mistaken for a peaked nose. The creature is some sixteen feet in length, while its horn averages five feet, though some exceed ten, and even attain to fifteen feet. Strictly speaking, this horn is but a lengthened tusk, growing out from the jaw in a line a little depressed from the horizontal. But it is only found on the sinister side, which has an ill effect, giving its owner something analogous to the aspect of a clumsy left-handed man. What precise purpose this ivory horn or lance answers, it would be hard to say. It does not seem to be used like the blade of the sword-fish and bill-fish; though some sailors tell me that the Narwhale employs it for a rake in turning over the bottom of the sea for food. Charley Coffin said it was used for an ice-piercer; for the Narwhale, rising to the surface of the Polar Sea, and finding it sheeted with ice, thrusts his horn up, and so breaks through. But you cannot prove either of these surmises to be correct. My own opinion is, that however this one-sided horn may really be used by the Narwhale—however that may be—it would certainly be very convenient to him for a folder in reading pamphlets. The Narwhale I have heard called the Tusked whale, the Horned whale, and the Unicorn whale. He is certainly a curious example of the Unicornism to be found in almost every kingdom of animated nature. From certain cloistered old authors I have gathered that this same sea-unicorn's horn was in ancient days regarded as the great antidote against poison, and as such, preparations of it brought immense prices. It was also distilled to a volatile salts for fainting ladies the same way that the horns of the male deer are manufactured into hartshorn. Originally it was in itself accounted an object of great curiosity. Black Letter tells me that Sir Martin Frobisher on his return from that voyage, when Queen Bess did gallantly wave her jewelled hand to him from a window of Greenwich Palace, as his bold ship sailed down the Thames; "when Sir Martin returned from that voyage," saith Black Letter, "on bended knees he presented to her highness a prodigious long horn of the Narwhale, which for a long period after hung in the castle at Windsor." An Irish author avers that the Earl of Leicester, on bended knees, did likewise present to her highness another horn, pertaining to a land beast of the unicorn nature.38. BOOK II. (Octavo), CHAPTER V. (Thrasher).—This gentleman is famous for his tail which he uses for a ferule in thrashing his foes. He mounts the Folio whale's back, and as he swims, he works his passage by flogging him; as some schoolmasters get along in the world by a similar process. Still less is known of the Thrasher than of the Killer. Both are outlaws, even in the lawless seas.39. BOOK III. (Duodecimo), CHAPTER III. (Mealy-mouthed Porpoise).—The largest kind of Porpoise; and only found in the Pacific, so far as it is known. The only English name, by which he has hitherto been designated, is that of the fisher—Right-Whale Porpoise, from the circumstance that he is chiefly found in the vicinity of that Folio. In shape, he differs in some degree from the Huzza Porpoise, being of a less rotund and jolly girth; indeed, he is of quite a neat and gentleman-like figure. He has no fins on his back (most other porpoises have), he has a lovely tail, and sentimental Indian eyes of a hazel hue. But his mealy-mouth spoils all. Though his entire back down to his side fins is of a deep sable, yet a boundary line, distinct as the mark in a ship's hull, called the "bright waist," that line streaks him from stem to stern, with two separate colors, black above and white below. The white comprises part of his head, and the whole of his mouth, which makes him look as if he had just escaped from a felonious visit to a meal-bag. A most mean and mealy aspect! His oil is much like that of the common porpoise.40. CHAPTER 3341. CHAPTER 3442. CHAPTER 3543. CHAPTER 3644. CHAPTER 3745. CHAPTER 3846. CHAPTER 3947. CHAPTER 4048. CHAPTER 4149. CHAPTER 4250. CHAPTER 4351. CHAPTER 4452. CHAPTER 4553. CHAPTER 4654. CHAPTER 4755. CHAPTER 4856. CHAPTER 4957. CHAPTER 5058. CHAPTER 5159. CHAPTER 5260. CHAPTER 5361. CHAPTER 5462. CHAPTER 5563. CHAPTER 5664. CHAPTER 5765. CHAPTER 5866. CHAPTER 5967. CHAPTER 6068. CHAPTER 6169. CHAPTER 6270. CHAPTER 6371. CHAPTER 6472. CHAPTER 6573. CHAPTER 6674. CHAPTER 6775. CHAPTER 6876. CHAPTER 6977. CHAPTER 7078. CHAPTER 7179. CHAPTER 7280. CHAPTER 7381. CHAPTER 7482. CHAPTER 7583. CHAPTER 7684. CHAPTER 7785. CHAPTER 7886. CHAPTER 7987. CHAPTER 8088. CHAPTER 8189. CHAPTER 8290. CHAPTER 8391. CHAPTER 8492. CHAPTER 8593. CHAPTER 8694. CHAPTER 8795. CHAPTER 8896. CHAPTER 8997. CHAPTER 9098. CHAPTER 9199. CHAPTER 92100. CHAPTER 93101. CHAPTER 94102. CHAPTER 95103. CHAPTER 96104. CHAPTER 97105. CHAPTER 98106. CHAPTER 99107. CHAPTER 100108. CHAPTER 101109. CHAPTER 102110. CHAPTER 103111. CHAPTER 104112. CHAPTER 105113. CHAPTER 106114. CHAPTER 107115. CHAPTER 108116. CHAPTER 109117. CHAPTER 110118. CHAPTER 111119. CHAPTER 112120. CHAPTER 113121. CHAPTER 114122. CHAPTER 115123. CHAPTER 116124. CHAPTER 117125. CHAPTER 118126. CHAPTER 119127. CHAPTER 120128. CHAPTER 121129. CHAPTER 122130. CHAPTER 123131. CHAPTER 124132. CHAPTER 125133. CHAPTER 126134. CHAPTER 127135. CHAPTER 128136. CHAPTER 129137. CHAPTER 130138. CHAPTER 131139. CHAPTER 132140. CHAPTER 133141. CHAPTER 134142. CHAPTER 135143. ETYMOLOGY