• In total there are 5 users online :: 0 registered, 0 hidden and 5 guests (based on users active over the past 60 minutes)
    Most users ever online was 789 on Tue Mar 19, 2024 5:08 am

Moby Dick Chapter 77 The Great Heidelburgh Tun

#106: Mar. - May 2012 (Fiction)
User avatar
Robert Tulip

2B - MOD & SILVER
BookTalk.org Hall of Fame
Posts: 6499
Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2005 9:16 pm
18
Location: Canberra
Has thanked: 2719 times
Been thanked: 2662 times
Contact:
Australia

Moby Dick Chapter 77 The Great Heidelburgh Tun

Unread post

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2701/270 ... m#2HCH0077

The Sperm Whale's head is a solid oblong, with the cranium and jaws surmounted by an unctuous mass wholly free from bones. The lower part, called the junk, is one immense honeycomb of oil. The upper part, known as the Case, may be regarded as the great Heidelburgh Tun of the Sperm Whale, a vast plaited forehead containing the highly-prized spermaceti, in its absolutely pure, limpid, and odoriferous state. A large whale's case generally yields about five hundred gallons of sperm, though considerable of it is lost in the ticklish business of securing what you can. In decapitating the whale, the operator has to be uncommonly heedful.

Image
Post Reply

Return to “Moby Dick; or, the Whale - by Herman Melville”