Moreover you observe that the whale
has no external nose; and that what nose he has--his spout hole--
is on the top of his head; you observe that his eyes and ears
are at the sides of his head; nearly one third of his entire
length from the front. Wherefore, you must now have perceived
that the front of the Sperm Whale's head is a dead, blind wall,
without a single organ or tender prominence of any sort whatsoever.
Furthermore, you are now to consider that only in the extreme,
lower, backward sloping part of the front of the head, is there
the slightest vestige of bone; and not till you get near twenty feet
from the forehead do you come to the full cranial development.
So that this whole enormous boneless mass is as one wad.
Finally, though, as will soon be revealed, its contents partly
comprise the most delicate oil; yet, you are now to be apprised
of the nature of the substance which so impregnably invests all
that apparent effeminacy. In some previous place I have described
to you how the blubber wraps the body of the whale, as the rind
wraps an orange. Just so with the head; but with this difference:
about the head this envelope, though not so thick is of a
boneless toughness, inestimable by any man who has not handled it.
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