307 
THE WHITE WHALE 
oxen drag stumps of old oaks out of wild woodlands. There are gener- 
ally forty-two teeth in all ; in old whales, much worn down, but unde- 
cayed; nor filled after our artificial fashion. The jaw is afterwards 
sawn into slabs, and piled away like joists for building houses. 
CHAPTER LXXIV 
THE EIGHT WHALES’s HEAD CONTRASTED VIEW 
Crossing the deck, let us now have a good long look at the Right 
Whale’s head. 
As in general shape the noble Sperm Whale’s head may he com- 
pared to a Roman war-chariot (especially in front, where it is so 
broadly rounded) ; so, at a broad view, the Right Whale’s head bears 
a rather inelegant resemblance to a gigantic galliot-toed shoe. Two 
hundred years ago an old Dutch voyager likened its shape to that of a 
shoemaker’s last. And in this same last or shoe, that old woman of 
the nursery tale, with the swarming brood, might very comfortably be 
lodged, she and all her progeny. 
But as you come nearer to this great head it begins to assume differ- 
ent aspects, according to your point of view. If you stand on its sum- 
mit and look at these two /-shaped spout-holes, you would take the whole 
head for an enormous bass-viol, and these spiracles, the apertures in 
its sounding-board. Then, again, if you fix your eye upon this strange, 
crested, comb-like incrustation on the top of the mass — this green, bar- 
nacled thing, which the Greenlanders call the “crown,” and the South- 
ern fishers the “bonnet” of the Right Whale ; fixing your eyes solely on 
this, you would take the head for the trunk of some huge oak, with a 
bird’s nest in its crotch. At any rate, when you watch those live crabs 
that nestle here on this bonnet, such an idea will be almost sure to occur 
to you ; unless, indeed, your fancy has been fixed by the technical term 
“crown” also bestowed upon it; in which case you will take great in- 
terest in thinking how this mighty monster is actually a diademed king 
of the sea, whose green crown has been put together for him in this 
marvellous manner. But if this whale be a king, he is a very sulky- 
looking fellow to grace a diadem. Look at that hanging lower lip! 
