1 Whereas, we have already seen, that the tape-measure gives seventy-two feet for the skeleton of a large sized modern whale.
Moby Dick By Herman MelvilleContextHighlight In CHAPTER 105. Does the Whale's Magnitude Diminish?—Will He ... 2 As it passes through the remaining vertebrae the canal tapers in size, but for a considerable distance remains of large capacity.
3 He is of moderate octavo size, varying from fifteen to twenty-five feet in length, and of corresponding dimensions round the waist.
4 The meat is made into balls about the size of billiard balls, and being well seasoned and spiced might be taken for turtle-balls or veal balls.
Moby Dick By Herman MelvilleContextHighlight In CHAPTER 65. The Whale as a Dish. 5 Still rolling in his blood, at last he partially disclosed a strangely discoloured bunch or protuberance, the size of a bushel, low down on the flank.
Moby Dick By Herman MelvilleContextHighlight In CHAPTER 81. The Pequod Meets The Virgin. 6 Not far from the Sea-side, they have a Temple, the Rafters and Beams of which are made of Whale-Bones; for Whales of a monstrous size are oftentimes cast up dead upon that shore.
7 The one grand stage where he enacted all his various parts so manifold, was his vice-bench; a long rude ponderous table furnished with several vices, of different sizes, and both of iron and of wood.
8 A whaleman's nipper is a short firm strip of tendinous stuff cut from the tapering part of Leviathan's tail: it averages an inch in thickness, and for the rest, is about the size of the iron part of a hoe.
Moby Dick By Herman MelvilleContextHighlight In CHAPTER 94. A Squeeze of the Hand. 9 Reckoning the largest sized Sperm Whale's tail to begin at that point of the trunk where it tapers to about the girth of a man, it comprises upon its upper surface alone, an area of at least fifty square feet.
10 Moreover, at a place in Yorkshire, England, Burton Constable by name, a certain Sir Clifford Constable has in his possession the skeleton of a Sperm Whale, but of moderate size, by no means of the full-grown magnitude of my friend King Tranquo's.
Moby Dick By Herman MelvilleContextHighlight In CHAPTER 102. A Bower in the Arsacides. 11 Two thick squares of wood of equal size are stoutly clenched together, so that they cross each other's grain at right angles; a line of considerable length is then attached to the middle of this block, and the other end of the line being looped, it can in a moment be fastened to a harpoon.