The Great Heidelburgh Tun
Now comes the Baling of the Case. 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.
And as that famous great tierce is mystically carved in front,
so the whale's vast plaited forehead forms innumerable strange
devices for the emblematical adornment of his wondrous tun.
Moreover, as that of Heidelburgh was always replenished
with the most excellent of the wines of the Rhenish valleys,
so the tun of the whale contains by far the most precious
of all his oily vintages; namely, the highly-prized spermaceti,
in its absolutely pure, limpid, and odoriferous state.
Nor is this precious substance found unalloyed in any other part
of the creature. Though in life it remains perfectly fluid,
yet, upon exposure to the air, after death, it soon begins
to concrete; sending forth beautiful crystalline shoots,
as when the first thin delicate ice is just forming in water.
A large whale's case generally yields about five hundred
gallons of sperm, though from unavoidable circumstances,
considerable of it is spilled, leaks, and dribbles away,
or is otherwise irrevocably lost in the ticklish business
of securing what you can.
I know not with what fine and costly material the Heidelburgh Tun
was coated within, but in superlative richness that coating could
not possibly have compared with the silken pearl-colored membrane,
like the lining of a fine pelisse, forming the inner surface
of the Sperm Whale's case.
It will have been seen that the Heidelburgh Tun of the Sperm Whale
embraces the entire length of the entire top of the head;
and since--as has been elsewhere set forth--the head embraces
one third of the whole length of the creature, then setting
that length down at eighty feet for a good sized whale,
you have more than twenty-six feet for the depth of the tun,
when it is lengthwise hoisted up and down against a ship's side.
As in decapitating the whale, the operator's instrument is
brought close to the spot where an entrance is subsequently
forced into the spermaceti magazine; he has, therefore, to be
uncommonly heedful, lest a careless, untimely stroke should invade
the sanctuary and wastingly let out its invaluable contents.
It is this decapitated end of the head, also, which is at
last elevated out of the water, and retained in that position
by the enormous cutting tackles, whose hempen combinations,
on one side, make quite a wilderness of ropes in that quarter.
Thus much being said, attend now, I pray you, to that marvellous and--
in this particular instance--almost fatal operation whereby
the Sperm Whale's great Heidelburgh Tun is tapped.
