Moby Dick; Or, The Whale

Of the Theme

The narrator explores how writers naturally expand with their subjects, but writing of the whale produces particularly overwhelming effects. He describes his thoughts as stretching to include “the whole circle of the sciences, and all the generations of whales, and men, and mastodons, past, present, and to come.” The whale represents the supreme literary and philosophical subject—a theme so vast that merely contemplating it causes exhaustion. The narrator exclaims that such is “the virtue of a large and liberal theme” that one expands to meet its bulk, and no enduring volume can be written on minor subjects.

Of Fossil Whales

The chapter establishes geological context for fossil whales, explaining that early geological strata contain fossils of now-extinct monsters, while Tertiary formations preserve connecting or intercepted links between ancient creatures and those believed to have entered Noah’s Ark. All fossil whales discovered belong to the Tertiary period, the last before superficial formations. Though they do not precisely match any known living species, they are sufficiently akin to modern cetaceans to rank as legitimate Cetacean fossils. The narrator’s experience as a stone-mason and ditch-digger provides his authority to discuss geological matters.

Of Fossil Localities

Fossil remains of pre-adamite whales have been discovered across Europe and America. Fragments have been found at the base of the Alps, in Lombardy, France, England, Scotland, and the American states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Notable discoveries include part of a skull found in 1779 in Paris’s Rue Dauphine near the Tuileries, and bones uncovered during construction of Antwerp’s great docks under Napoleon’s direction. Cuvier examined these fragments and pronounced them belonging to an utterly unknown Leviathanic species, establishing the scientific mystery of ancient whales.