Spine Description
The narrator notes the best way to visualize the whale’s spine is to pile its bones upright on end using a crane, a slow process that once complete results in a structure that looks very much like Pompey’s Pillar.
Vertebrae Measurements
The narrator details the spine’s vertebrae: there are roughly 40 vertebrae total, which are not locked together in the skeleton, stacked like heavy masonry blocks on a Gothic spire. The largest middle vertebra is just under 3 feet wide and over 4 feet deep, while the smallest at the tapering tail end is only 2 inches wide and resembles a white billiard ball.
Cannibal Urchins and Marbles
The narrator shares that he was told even smaller tail vertebrae existed, but they were stolen and lost by the priest’s cannibal urchin children, who used them to play marbles, illustrating how the spine of even the largest living creature ultimately tapers off into a simple child’s plaything.
第一百零四章 The Fossil Whale.
The chapter presents an expansive meditation on the fossil whale, framing Leviathan as a subject worthy of imperial folio treatment. The narrator declares his intention to treat the whale “in an archæological, fossiliferous, and antediluvian point of view,” claiming credentials as a geologist through his experience as a stone-mason and digger of wells and cisterns. The opening emphasizes that great themes demand great expression, asserting that while no mighty book can be written on fleas, Leviathan justifies the grandest language. The narrator even purchased a huge quarto edition of Johnson’s dictionary to match the bulk of his subject.
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