But to comprehend it aright,
you must know something of the curious internal structure
of the thing operated upon.
Regarding the Sperm Whale's head as a solid oblong, you may,
on an inclined plane, sideways divide it into two quoins,* whereof
the lower is the bony structure, forming the cranium and jaws,
and the upper an unctuous mass wholly free from bones; its broad forward
end forming the expanded vertical apparent forehead of the whale.
At the middle of the forehead horizontally subdivide this upper quoin,
and then you have two almost equal parts, which before were naturally
divided by an internal wall of a thick tendinous substance.
*Quoin is not a Euclidean term. It belongs to the pure
nautical mathematics. I know not that it has been defined before.
A quoin is a solid which differs from a wedge in having
its sharp end formed by the steep inclination of one side,
instead of the mutual tapering of both sides.
The lower subdivided part, called the junk, is one immense
honeycomb of oil, formed by the crossing and recrossing,
into ten thousand infiltrated cells, of tough elastic white fibres
throughout its whole extent. The upper part, known as the Case,
may be regarded as the great Heidelburgh Tun of the Sperm Whale.
Pages:
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556