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.
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