But as you come nearer to this great head it begins to assume different aspects, according to your point of view. If you stand on its summit and look at these two f-shaped spoutholes, you would take the whole head for an enormous bass-viol, and these spiracles, the apertures in its sounding-board. Then, again, if you fix your eye upon this strange, crested, comb-like incrustation on the top of the massâ âthis green, barnacled thing, which the Greenlanders call the âcrown,â and the Southern fishers the âbonnetâ of the Right Whale; fixing your eyes solely on this, you would take the head for the trunk of some huge oak, with a birdâs nest in its crotch. At any rate, when you watch those live crabs that nestle here on this bonnet, such an idea will be almost sure to occur to you; unless, indeed, your fancy has been fixed by the technical term âcrownâ also bestowed upon it; in which case you will take great interest in thinking how this mighty monster is actually a diademed king of the sea, whose green crown has been put together for him in this marvellous manner. But if this whale be a king, he is a very sulky looking fellow to grace a diadem. Look at that hanging lower lip! what a huge sulk and pout is there! a sulk and pout, by carpenterâs measurement, about twenty feet long and five feet deep; a sulk and pout that will yield you some 500 gallons of oil and more.
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