Introduction

In length, the sperm whale's skeleton at tranqua measured 72 feet. When fully invested and extended in life, he must have been 90 feet long. Of this 72 feet, his skull and jaw comprised some 20 feet,. leaving some 50 feet of plain backbone. Attached to this backbone for something less than a third of its length was the mighty circular basket of ribs, which once enclosed his vitals. To me, this vast, ivory ribbed chest with the long, unrelieved spine extending far away from it in a straight line, not a little resembled the hull of a great ship new laid upon the stocks when only some 20 of her naked bow ribs are inserted. And the ke