Read Online Moby-Dick (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) by Herman Melville - Free Book Online
Authors: Herman Melville
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in his belly. * * *
One of our harpooneers told me that he caught once a whale in
Spitzbergen that was white all over.”
A Voyage to Greenland, A.D. 1671.
Harris Coll.
“Several whales have come in upon this coast (Fife). Anno 1652, one eighty foot in length of the whale-bone kind came in, which, (as I was informed) beside a vast quantity of oil, did afford 500 weight of baleen. The jaws of it stand for a gate in the garden of Pitfirren.”
Sibbald’s Fife and Kinross.
“Myself have agreed to try whether I can master and kill this Spermaceti whale, for I could never hear of any of that sort that was killed by any man, such as his fierceness and swiftness.”
Richard Stafford’s Letter from the Bermudas.
Phil. Trans. A.D. 1668.
“Whales in the sea God’s voice obey.”
N. E. Primer.
“We saw also abundance of large whales, there being more in these southern seas, as I may say, by a hundred to one; than we have to the northward of us.”
Captain Cowly’s Voyage round the Globe. A.D. 1729.
* * * * * “and the breath of the whale is frequently attended with such an insupportable smell, as to bring on a disorder of the brain.”
Ulloa’s South America.
“To fifty chosen sylphs of special note,
We trust the important charge, the petticoat.
Oft have we known that seven-fold fence to fail,
Tho’ stiff with hoops and armed with ribs of whale.”
Rape of the Lock.
“If we compare land animals in respect to magnitude, with those that take up their abode in the deep, we shall find they will appear contemptible in the comparison. The whale is doubtless the largest animal in creation.”
Goldsmith, Nat. His.
“If you should write a fable for little fishes, you would make them speak like great whales.”
Goldsmith to Johnson.
In the afternoon we saw what was supposed to be a rock, but it was found to be a dead whale, which some Asiatics had killed, and were then towing ashore. They seemed to endeavor to conceal themselves behind the whale, in order to avoid being seen by us.”
Cook’s Voyages.
“The larger whales, they seldom venture to attack. They stand in so great dread of some of them, that when out at sea they are afraid to mention even their names, and carry dung, brim-stone, juniper-wood, and some other articles of the same nature in their boats, in order to terrify and prevent their too near approach.”
Uno Von Troll’s Letters on Banks’s and
Solander’s Voyage to Iceland in 1772.
“The Spermacetti Whale found by the Nantuckois, is an active, fierce animal, and requires vast address and boldness in the fishermen.” Thomas Jefferson’s Whale Memorial to the
French minister in 1788.
“And pray, sir, what in the world is equal to it?”
Edmund Burke’s reference in Parliament to the Nantucket Whale-Fishery.
“Spain——a great whale stranded on the shores of Europe.”
Edmund Burke. (somewhere.)
“A tenth branch of the king’s ordinary revenue, said to be grounded on the consideration of his guarding and protecting the seas from pirates and robbers, is the right to royal fish, which are whale and sturgeon. And these, when either thrown ashore or caught near the coasts, are the property of the king.”
Blackstone.
“Soon to the sport of death the crews repair:
Rodmond unerring o’er his head suspends
The barbed steel, and every turn attends.”
Falconer’s Shipwreck.
“Bright shone the roofs, the domes, the spires,
And rockets flew self driven,
To hang their momentary fires
Amid the vault of heaven.
“So fire with water to compare,
The ocean serves on high,
Up-spouted by a whale in air,
To express unwieldy joy.”
Cowper, on the Queen’s Visit to London.
“Ten or fifteen gallons of blood are thrown out of the heart at a stroke, with immense velocity.”
John Hunter’s account of the dissection of a whale. (A small sized one.)
“The aorta of a whale is larger in the bore than the main pipe of the
One of our harpooneers told me that he caught once a whale in
Spitzbergen that was white all over.”
A Voyage to Greenland, A.D. 1671.
Harris Coll.
“Several whales have come in upon this coast (Fife). Anno 1652, one eighty foot in length of the whale-bone kind came in, which, (as I was informed) beside a vast quantity of oil, did afford 500 weight of baleen. The jaws of it stand for a gate in the garden of Pitfirren.”
Sibbald’s Fife and Kinross.
“Myself have agreed to try whether I can master and kill this Spermaceti whale, for I could never hear of any of that sort that was killed by any man, such as his fierceness and swiftness.”
Richard Stafford’s Letter from the Bermudas.
Phil. Trans. A.D. 1668.
“Whales in the sea God’s voice obey.”
N. E. Primer.
“We saw also abundance of large whales, there being more in these southern seas, as I may say, by a hundred to one; than we have to the northward of us.”
Captain Cowly’s Voyage round the Globe. A.D. 1729.
* * * * * “and the breath of the whale is frequently attended with such an insupportable smell, as to bring on a disorder of the brain.”
Ulloa’s South America.
“To fifty chosen sylphs of special note,
We trust the important charge, the petticoat.
Oft have we known that seven-fold fence to fail,
Tho’ stiff with hoops and armed with ribs of whale.”
Rape of the Lock.
“If we compare land animals in respect to magnitude, with those that take up their abode in the deep, we shall find they will appear contemptible in the comparison. The whale is doubtless the largest animal in creation.”
Goldsmith, Nat. His.
“If you should write a fable for little fishes, you would make them speak like great whales.”
Goldsmith to Johnson.
In the afternoon we saw what was supposed to be a rock, but it was found to be a dead whale, which some Asiatics had killed, and were then towing ashore. They seemed to endeavor to conceal themselves behind the whale, in order to avoid being seen by us.”
Cook’s Voyages.
“The larger whales, they seldom venture to attack. They stand in so great dread of some of them, that when out at sea they are afraid to mention even their names, and carry dung, brim-stone, juniper-wood, and some other articles of the same nature in their boats, in order to terrify and prevent their too near approach.”
Uno Von Troll’s Letters on Banks’s and
Solander’s Voyage to Iceland in 1772.
“The Spermacetti Whale found by the Nantuckois, is an active, fierce animal, and requires vast address and boldness in the fishermen.” Thomas Jefferson’s Whale Memorial to the
French minister in 1788.
“And pray, sir, what in the world is equal to it?”
Edmund Burke’s reference in Parliament to the Nantucket Whale-Fishery.
“Spain——a great whale stranded on the shores of Europe.”
Edmund Burke. (somewhere.)
“A tenth branch of the king’s ordinary revenue, said to be grounded on the consideration of his guarding and protecting the seas from pirates and robbers, is the right to royal fish, which are whale and sturgeon. And these, when either thrown ashore or caught near the coasts, are the property of the king.”
Blackstone.
“Soon to the sport of death the crews repair:
Rodmond unerring o’er his head suspends
The barbed steel, and every turn attends.”
Falconer’s Shipwreck.
“Bright shone the roofs, the domes, the spires,
And rockets flew self driven,
To hang their momentary fires
Amid the vault of heaven.
“So fire with water to compare,
The ocean serves on high,
Up-spouted by a whale in air,
To express unwieldy joy.”
Cowper, on the Queen’s Visit to London.
“Ten or fifteen gallons of blood are thrown out of the heart at a stroke, with immense velocity.”
John Hunter’s account of the dissection of a whale. (A small sized one.)
“The aorta of a whale is larger in the bore than the main pipe of the
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