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Detached
broken
fossils
of
pre-adamite
whales
,
fragments
of
their
bones
and
skeletons
,
have
within
thirty
years
past
,
at
various
intervals
,
been
found
at
the
base
of
the
Alps
,
in
Lombardy
,
in
France
,
in
England
,
in
Scotland
,
and
in
the
States
of
Louisiana
,
Mississippi
,
and
Alabama
.
Among
the
more
curious
of
such
remains
is
part
of
a
skull
,
which
in
the
year
1779
was
disinterred
in
the
Rue
Dauphine
in
Paris
,
a
short
street
opening
almost
directly
upon
the
palace
of
the
Tuileries
;
and
bones
disinterred
in
excavating
the
great
docks
of
Antwerp
,
in
Napoleon
's
time
.
Cuvier
pronounced
these
fragments
to
have
belonged
to
some
utterly
unknown
Leviathanic
species
.
But
by
far
the
most
wonderful
of
all
Cetacean
relics
was
the
almost
complete
vast
skeleton
of
an
extinct
monster
,
found
in
the
year
1842
,
on
the
plantation
of
Judge
Creagh
,
in
Alabama
.
The
awe-stricken
credulous
slaves
in
the
vicinity
took
it
for
the
bones
of
one
of
the
fallen
angels
.
The
Alabama
doctors
declared
it
a
huge
reptile
,
and
bestowed
upon
it
the
name
of
Basilosaurus
.
But
some
specimen
bones
of
it
being
taken
across
the
sea
to
Owen
,
the
English
Anatomist
,
it
turned
out
that
this
alleged
reptile
was
a
whale
,
though
of
a
departed
species
.
A
significant
illustration
of
the
fact
,
again
and
again
repeated
in
this
book
,
that
the
skeleton
of
the
whale
furnishes
but
little
clue
to
the
shape
of
his
fully
invested
body
.
So
Owen
rechristened
the
monster
Zeuglodon
;
and
in
his
paper
read
before
the
London
Geological
Society
,
pronounced
it
,
in
substance
,
one
of
the
most
extraordinary
creatures
which
the
mutations
of
the
globe
have
blotted
out
of
existence
.
When
I
stand
among
these
mighty
Leviathan
skeletons
,
skulls
,
tusks
,
jaws
,
ribs
,
and
vertebrae
,
all
characterized
by
partial
resemblances
to
the
existing
breeds
of
sea-monsters
;
but
at
the
same
time
bearing
on
the
other
hand
similar
affinities
to
the
annihilated
antichronical
Leviathans
,
their
incalculable
seniors
;
I
am
,
by
a
flood
,
borne
back
to
that
wondrous
period
,
ere
time
itself
can
be
said
to
have
begun
;
for
time
began
with
man
.
Here
Saturn
's
grey
chaos
rolls
over
me
,
and
I
obtain
dim
,
shuddering
glimpses
into
those
Polar
eternities
;
when
wedged
bastions
of
ice
pressed
hard
upon
what
are
now
the
Tropics
;
and
in
all
the
25,000
miles
of
this
world
's
circumference
,
not
an
inhabitable
hand
's
breadth
of
land
was
visible
.
Then
the
whole
world
was
the
whale
's
;
and
,
king
of
creation
,
he
left
his
wake
along
the
present
lines
of
the
Andes
and
the
Himmalehs
.
Who
can
show
a
pedigree
like
Leviathan
?
Ahab
's
harpoon
had
shed
older
blood
than
the
Pharaoh
's
.
Methuselah
seems
a
schoolboy
.
I
look
round
to
shake
hands
with
Shem
.
I
am
horror-struck
at
this
antemosaic
,
unsourced
existence
of
the
unspeakable
terrors
of
the
whale
,
which
,
having
been
before
all
time
,
must
needs
exist
after
all
humane
ages
are
over
.
But
not
alone
has
this
Leviathan
left
his
pre-adamite
traces
in
the
stereotype
plates
of
nature
,
and
in
limestone
and
marl
bequeathed
his
ancient
bust
;
but
upon
Egyptian
tablets
,
whose
antiquity
seems
to
claim
for
them
an
almost
fossiliferous
character
,
we
find
the
unmistakable
print
of
his
fin
.
In
an
apartment
of
the
great
temple
of
Denderah
,
some
fifty
years
ago
,
there
was
discovered
upon
the
granite
ceiling
a
sculptured
and
painted
planisphere
,
similar
to
the
grotesque
figures
on
the
celestial
globe
of
the
moderns
.
Gliding
among
them
,
old
Leviathan
swam
as
of
yore
;
was
there
swimming
in
that
planisphere
,
centuries
before
Solomon
was
cradled
.
Nor
must
there
be
omitted
another
strange
attestation
of
the
antiquity
of
the
whale
,
in
his
own
osseous
postdiluvian
reality
,
as
set
down
by
the
venerable
John
Leo
,
the
old
Barbary
traveller
.
"
Not
far
from
the
Sea-side
,
they
have
a
Temple
,
the
Rafters
and
Beams
of
which
are
made
of
Whale-Bones
;
for
Whales
of
a
monstrous
size
are
oftentimes
cast
up
dead
upon
that
shore
The
Common
People
imagine
,
that
by
a
secret
Power
bestowed
by
God
upon
the
Temple
,
no
Whale
can
pass
it
without
immediate
death
.
But
the
truth
of
the
matter
is
,
that
on
either
side
of
the
Temple
,
there
are
Rocks
that
shoot
two
Miles
into
the
Sea
,
and
wound
the
Whales
when
they
light
upon
'
em
.
They
keep
a
Whale
's
Rib
of
an
incredible
length
for
a
Miracle
,
which
lying
upon
the
Ground
with
its
convex
part
uppermost
,
makes
an
Arch
,
the
Head
of
which
can
not
be
reached
by
a
Man
upon
a
Camel
's
Back
.
This
Rib
(
says
John
Leo
)
is
said
to
have
layn
there
a
hundred
Years
before
I
saw
it
.
Their
Historians
affirm
,
that
a
Prophet
who
prophesy
'd
of
Mahomet
,
came
from
this
Temple
,
and
some
do
not
stand
to
assert
,
that
the
Prophet
Jonas
was
cast
forth
by
the
Whale
at
the
Base
of
the
Temple
.
"
In
this
Afric
Temple
of
the
Whale
I
leave
you
,
reader
,
and
if
you
be
a
Nantucketer
,
and
a
whaleman
,
you
will
silently
worship
there
.
