On Tower-hill, as you go down - To the London docks, you may have seen a crippled
beggar (or KEDGER, as the sailors say) holding a
painted board before him, representing the tragic
scene in which he lost his leg
Promo
There are three whales and three boats
- And one of the boats (presumed to contain the missing
leg in all its original integrity) is being crunched
by the jaws of the foremost whale
Any time these ten years, they tell me, has that man
held up - That picture, and exhibited that stump to an
incredulous world. But the time of his justification
has now come. His three whales are as good whales as
were ever published in Wapping, at any rate; and his
stump
Throughout the Pacific, and also in Nantucket, and
New Bedford - and Sag Harbor, you will come across lively sketches
of whales and whaling-scenes, graven by the fishermen
themselves on Sperm Whale-teeth, or ladies' busks
wrought out of the Right Whale-bone
The whalemen call the numerous little ingenious
contrivances - They elaborately carve out of the rough material, in
their hours of ocean leisure. Some of them have little
boxes of dentistical-looking implements
Some of them have little boxes of dentistical-looking
implements - Specially intended for the skrimshandering business.
But, in general, they toil with their jack-knives
alone; and, with that almost omnipotent tool of the
sailor
Your true whale-hunter is as much a savage as an
Iroquois - I myself am a savage, owning no allegiance but to the
King of the Cannibals; and ready at any moment to
rebel against him. Now, one of the peculiar
characteristics of the savage in his domestic
hours
An ancient Hawaiian war-club or spear-paddle
- In its full multiplicity and elaboration of carving,
is as great a trophy of human perseverance as a Latin
lexicon. For, with but a bit of broken sea-shell or a
shark's tooth
As with the Hawaiian savage, so with the white
sailor-savage - With the same marvellous patience, and with the same
single shark's tooth, of his one poor jack-knife, he
will carve you a bit of bone sculpture, not quite as
workmanlike
Track
Achilles's shield - Wooden whales, or whales cut in profile out of the
small dark slabs of the noble South Sea war-wood, are
frequently met with in the forecastles of American
whalers. Some of them are done with much
accuracy
At some old gable-roofed country houses
- You will see brass whales hung by the tail for
knockers to the road-side door. When the porter is
sleepy, the anvil-headed whale would be best. But
these knocking whales are seldom remarkable as
faithful essays
On the spires of some old-fashioned churches
- You will see sheet-iron whales placed there for
weather-cocks; but they are so elevated, and besides
that are to all intents and purposes so labelled with
"HANDS OFF!" you cannot examine them
In bony, ribby regions of the earth
- Where at the base of high broken cliffs masses of
rock lie strewn in fantastic groupings upon the plain,
you will often discover images as of the petrified
forms
Here and there from some lucky point of view
- You will catch passing glimpses of the profiles of
whales defined along the undulating ridges. But you
must be a thorough whaleman, to see these sights; and
not only that, but if you wish to return to such a
sight again
To the London docks, you may have seen a crippled
beggar (or KEDGER, as the sailors say) holding a
painted board before him, representing the tragic
scene in which he lost his leg
Any time these ten years, they tell me, has that man
held up
That picture, and exhibited that stump to an
incredulous world. But the time of his justification
has now come. His three whales are as good whales as
were ever published in Wapping, at any rate; and his
stump
Throughout the Pacific, and also in Nantucket, and New
Bedford
and Sag Harbor, you will come across lively sketches
of whales and whaling-scenes, graven by the fishermen
themselves on Sperm Whale-teeth, or ladies' busks
wrought out of the Right Whale-bone
Some of them have little boxes of dentistical-looking
implements
Specially intended for the skrimshandering business.
But, in general, they toil with their jack-knives
alone; and, with that almost omnipotent tool of the
sailor
Your true whale-hunter is as much a savage as an
Iroquois
I myself am a savage, owning no allegiance but to the
King of the Cannibals; and ready at any moment to
rebel against him. Now, one of the peculiar
characteristics of the savage in his domestic
hours
In its full multiplicity and elaboration of carving,
is as great a trophy of human perseverance as a Latin
lexicon. For, with but a bit of broken sea-shell or a
shark's tooth
As with the Hawaiian savage, so with the white
sailor-savage
With the same marvellous patience, and with the same
single shark's tooth, of his one poor jack-knife, he
will carve you a bit of bone sculpture, not quite as
workmanlike
Wooden whales, or whales cut in profile out of the
small dark slabs of the noble South Sea war-wood, are
frequently met with in the forecastles of American
whalers. Some of them are done with much
accuracy
You will see brass whales hung by the tail for
knockers to the road-side door. When the porter is
sleepy, the anvil-headed whale would be best. But
these knocking whales are seldom remarkable as
faithful essays
You will see sheet-iron whales placed there for
weather-cocks; but they are so elevated, and besides
that are to all intents and purposes so labelled with
"HANDS OFF!" you cannot examine them
Where at the base of high broken cliffs masses of
rock lie strewn in fantastic groupings upon the plain,
you will often discover images as of the petrified
forms
You will catch passing glimpses of the profiles of
whales defined along the undulating ridges. But you
must be a thorough whaleman, to see these sights; and
not only that, but if you wish to return to such a
sight again
