The Antiquity of the Whale

Not alone had this leviathan left his preatomite traces in the stereotyped plates of nature. But upon egyptian tablets whose antiquity seems to claim for them an almost fossilfarious character, we find the unmistakable print of his fin. Not far from the seaside, 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. Was there swimming in that plano sphere centuries before solomon was cradled? And if you be a nantucketer and a whaleman, you will silently worship there. I look round to shake hands with shem