 such provision in him; considering, too, the otherwise inexplicable
manner in which he now depresses his head altogether beneath the surface, and
anon swims with it high elevated out of the water; considering the unobstructed
elasticity of its envelope; considering the unique interior of his head; it has
hypothetically occurred to me, I say, that those mystical lung-celled honeycombs
there may possibly have some hitherto unknown and unsuspected connection with
the outer air, so as to be susceptible to atmospheric distension and
contraction. If this be so, fancy the irresistibleness of that might, to which
the most impalpable and destructive of all elements contributes.
    Now, mark. Unerringly impelling this dead, impregnable, uninjurable wall,
and this most buoyant thing within; there swims behind it all a mass of
tremendous life, only to be adequately estimated as piled wood is - by the cord;
and all obedient to one volition, as the smallest insect. So that when I shall
hereafter detail to you all the specialities and concentrations of potency
everywhere lurking in this expansive monster; when I shall show you some of his
more inconsiderable braining feats; I trust you will have renounced all ignorant
incredulity, and be ready to abide by this; that though the sperm whale stove a
passage through the Isthmus of Darien, and mixed the Atlantic with the Pacific,
you would not elevate one hair of your eyebrow. For unless you own the whale,
you are but a provincial and sentimentalist in Truth. But clear Truth is a thing
for salamander giants only to encounter; how small the chances for the
provincials then? What befell the weakling youth lifting the dread goddess's
veil at Lais?
 

                                 Chapter LXXVII

                           The Great Heidelburgh Tun

Now comes the Baling of the Case. But to comprehend it aright, you must know
something of the curious internal structure of the thing operated upon.
    Regarding the sperm whale's head as a solid oblong, you may, on an inclined
plane, sideways divide it into two quoins,17 whereof the lower is the bony
structure, forming the cranium and jaws, and the upper an unctuous mass wholly
free from bones; its broad forward end forming the expanded vertical apparent
forehead of the whale. At the middle of the forehead horizontally subdivide this
upper quoin, and then you have two almost equal parts, which before were
naturally divided by an internal wall of a thick tendinous substance.
    The lower subdivided part, called the junk, is one immense honeycomb of oil,
formed by the crossing and recrossing, into ten thousand infiltrated cells, of
tough elastic white fibres throughout its whole extent. The upper part, known
