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
