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Then
,
again
,
in
1825
,
Bernard
Germain
,
Count
de
Lacepede
,
a
great
naturalist
,
published
a
scientific
systemized
whale
book
,
wherein
are
several
pictures
of
the
different
species
of
the
Leviathan
.
All
these
are
not
only
incorrect
,
but
the
picture
of
the
Mysticetus
or
Greenland
whale
(
that
is
to
say
the
Right
whale
)
,
even
Scoresby
,
a
long
experienced
man
as
touching
that
species
,
declares
not
to
have
its
counterpart
in
nature
.
But
the
placing
of
the
cap-sheaf
to
all
this
blundering
business
was
reserved
for
the
scientific
Frederick
Cuvier
,
brother
to
the
famous
Baron
.
In
1836
,
he
published
a
Natural
History
of
Whales
,
in
which
he
gives
what
he
calls
a
picture
of
the
Sperm
Whale
.
Before
showing
that
picture
to
any
Nantucketer
,
you
had
best
provide
for
your
summary
retreat
from
Nantucket
.
In
a
word
,
Frederick
Cuvier
's
Sperm
Whale
is
not
a
Sperm
Whale
,
but
a
squash
.
Of
course
,
he
never
had
the
benefit
of
a
whaling
voyage
(
such
men
seldom
have
)
,
but
whence
he
derived
that
picture
,
who
can
tell
?
Perhaps
he
got
it
as
his
scientific
predecessor
in
the
same
field
,
Desmarest
,
got
one
of
his
authentic
abortions
;
that
is
,
from
a
Chinese
drawing
.
And
what
sort
of
lively
lads
with
the
pencil
those
Chinese
are
,
many
queer
cups
and
saucers
inform
us
.
As
for
the
sign-painters
'
whales
seen
in
the
streets
hanging
over
the
shops
of
oil-dealers
,
what
shall
be
said
of
them
?
They
are
generally
Richard
III
.
whales
,
with
dromedary
humps
,
and
very
savage
;
breakfasting
on
three
or
four
sailor
tarts
,
that
is
whaleboats
full
of
mariners
:
their
deformities
floundering
in
seas
of
blood
and
blue
paint
.
But
these
manifold
mistakes
in
depicting
the
whale
are
not
so
very
surprising
after
all
.
Consider
!
Most
of
the
scientific
drawings
have
been
taken
from
the
stranded
fish
;
and
these
are
about
as
correct
as
a
drawing
of
a
wrecked
ship
,
with
broken
back
,
would
correctly
represent
the
noble
animal
itself
in
all
its
undashed
pride
of
hull
and
spars
.
Though
elephants
have
stood
for
their
full-lengths
,
the
living
Leviathan
has
never
yet
fairly
floated
himself
for
his
portrait
.
The
living
whale
,
in
his
full
majesty
and
significance
,
is
only
to
be
seen
at
sea
in
unfathomable
waters
;
and
afloat
the
vast
bulk
of
him
is
out
of
sight
,
like
a
launched
line-of-battle
ship
;
and
out
of
that
element
it
is
a
thing
eternally
impossible
for
mortal
man
to
hoist
him
bodily
into
the
air
,
so
as
to
preserve
all
his
mighty
swells
and
undulations
.
And
,
not
to
speak
of
the
highly
presumable
difference
of
contour
between
a
young
suckling
whale
and
a
full-grown
Platonian
Leviathan
;
yet
,
even
in
the
case
of
one
of
those
young
sucking
whales
hoisted
to
a
ship
's
deck
,
such
is
then
the
outlandish
,
eel-like
,
limbered
,
varying
shape
of
him
,
that
his
precise
expression
the
devil
himself
could
not
catch
.
But
it
may
be
fancied
,
that
from
the
naked
skeleton
of
the
stranded
whale
,
accurate
hints
may
be
derived
touching
his
true
form
.
Not
at
all
.
For
it
is
one
of
the
more
curious
things
about
this
Leviathan
,
that
his
skeleton
gives
very
little
idea
of
his
general
shape
.
Though
Jeremy
Bentham
's
skeleton
,
which
hangs
for
candelabra
in
the
library
of
one
of
his
executors
,
correctly
conveys
the
idea
of
a
burly-browed
utilitarian
old
gentleman
,
with
all
Jeremy
's
other
leading
personal
characteristics
;
yet
nothing
of
this
kind
could
be
inferred
from
any
leviathan
's
articulated
bones
.
In
fact
,
as
the
great
Hunter
says
,
the
mere
skeleton
of
the
whale
bears
the
same
relation
to
the
fully
invested
and
padded
animal
as
the
insect
does
to
the
chrysalis
that
so
roundingly
envelopes
it
.
This
peculiarity
is
strikingly
evinced
in
the
head
,
as
in
some
part
of
this
book
will
be
incidentally
shown
.
It
is
also
very
curiously
displayed
in
the
side
fin
,
the
bones
of
which
almost
exactly
answer
to
bones
of
the
human
hand
,
minus
only
the
thumb
.
This
fin
has
four
regular
bone-fingers
,
the
index
,
middle
,
ring
,
and
little
finger
.
But
all
these
are
permanently
lodged
in
their
fleshy
covering
,
as
the
human
fingers
in
an
artificial
covering
.
"
However
recklessly
the
whale
may
sometimes
serve
us
,
"
said
humorous
Stubb
one
day
,
"
he
can
never
be
truly
said
to
handle
us
without
mittens
.
"
For
all
these
reasons
,
then
,
any
way
you
may
look
at
it
,
you
must
needs
conclude
that
the
great
Leviathan
is
that
one
creature
in
the
world
which
much
remain
unpainted
to
the
last
True
,
one
portrait
may
hit
the
mark
much
nearer
than
another
,
but
none
can
hit
it
with
any
very
considerable
degree
of
exactness
.
So
there
is
no
earthly
way
of
finding
out
precisely
what
the
whale
really
looks
like
.
And
the
only
mode
in
which
you
can
derive
even
a
tolerable
idea
of
his
living
contour
,
is
by
going
a
whaling
yourself
;
but
by
so
doing
,
you
run
no
small
risk
of
being
eternally
stove
and
sunk
by
him
.
Wherefore
,
it
seems
to
me
you
had
best
not
be
too
fastidious
in
your
curiosity
touching
this
Leviathan
.
In
connexion
with
the
monstrous
pictures
of
whales
,
I
am
strongly
tempted
here
to
enter
upon
those
still
more
monstrous
stories
of
them
which
are
to
be
found
in
certain
books
,
both
ancient
and
modern
,
especially
in
Pliny
,
Purchas
,
Hackluyt
,
Harris
,
Cuvier
,
&
c
.
But
I
pass
that
matter
by
.
I
know
of
only
four
published
outlines
of
the
great
Sperm
Whale
;
Colnett
's
,
Huggins
's
,
Frederick
Cuvier
's
,
and
Beale
's
.
In
the
previous
chapter
Colnett
and
Cuvier
have
been
referred
to
.
Huggins
's
is
far
better
than
theirs
;
but
,
by
great
odds
,
Beale
's
is
the
best
.
All
Beale
's
drawings
of
this
whale
are
good
,
excepting
the
middle
figure
in
the
picture
of
three
whales
in
various
attitudes
,
capping
his
second
chapter
.
His
frontispiece
,
boats
attacking
Sperm
Whales
,
though
no
doubt
calculated
to
excite
the
civil
scepticism
of
some
parlor
men
,
is
admirably
correct
and
life-like
in
its
general
effect
.
Some
of
the
Sperm
Whale
drawings
in
J.
Ross
Browne
are
pretty
correct
in
contour
;
but
they
are
wretchedly
engraved
.
That
is
not
his
fault
though
.
Of
the
Right
Whale
,
the
best
outline
pictures
are
in
Scoresby
;
but
they
are
drawn
on
too
small
a
scale
to
convey
a
desirable
impression
.
He
has
but
one
picture
of
whaling
scenes
,
and
this
is
a
sad
deficiency
,
because
it
is
by
such
pictures
only
,
when
at
all
well
done
,
that
you
can
derive
anything
like
a
truthful
idea
of
the
living
whale
as
seen
by
his
living
hunters
.
