The Skeleton of the Whale

The whale's skeleton gives very little idea of his general shape. The mere skeleton of the whale bears the same relation to the fully invested, apadded animal as the insect does to the chrysalis that so roundingly envelops it. 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 wailing yourself. But by so doing, you run no small risk of being eternally stove and sunk by him. However reck