首先，我想向你们作一个特别而平实的陈述，谈谈这头我们将要简略展出的利维坦活体之庞然身躯。这样的陈述或许在此有所助益。
根据我所做的一项审慎推算——其中部分依据斯科斯比船长对体长六十英尺的最大格陵兰鲸重七十吨的估计——据我说，这审慎的推算，一头体型最大的抹香鲸，体长介于八十五至九十英尺之间，最粗处周长略小于四十英尺，这样一头鲸至少重达九十吨；因此，若以一吨合十三人计，它的体重将远远超过一座拥有一千一百居民村庄的全部人口之和。
那么，你是否以为，如同套轭的牛一般，须得将头脑也套上这利维坦，才能让它稍稍挪动，进入任何陆上之人的想象？
我已以种种方式向你们展示了他的颅骨、喷孔、颌、齿、尾、额、鳍，以及若干其他部分，此刻我将只是指出，在他那毫无遮拦的骨骼整体之中，最有趣者为何。但因那巨大的颅骨占了整副骨架极其庞大的比例；因它远为最复杂的部分；又因本章中再无关于它的复述，你们切不可不将它记在心间，或挟于臂下，随我们前行，否则你们便无法对即将观览的整体结构获得完备的概念。
论长度，特朗克岛那头抹香鲸的骨架测得七十二英尺；因而当它在生时全然披肉舒展，必长九十英尺；因为鲸的骨架较活体缩短了约五分之一。这七十二英尺中，颅骨与颌占了约二十英尺，余下约五十英尺平直的脊骨。附着于这脊骨的，在其长度不及三分之一处，是那曾包裹内脏的雄伟环形肋篮。
于我而言，这巨大的象牙肋胸，连同那长而无曲、远远平直伸出的脊柱，颇似一艘新铺于船台的大船之 hull，那时仅插入了约二十根裸露的船首肋材，而龙骨在其他方面暂且不过是一根漫长而不相连的木料。
肋骨每侧十根。自颈处起算，第一根近六英尺长；第二、第三、第四根依次渐长，直至第五根亦即中间某肋达到顶点，测得八英尺又若干英寸。自此以降，余肋渐短，至第十根亦即最后一根仅跨五英尺又若干英寸。论总体粗细，它们皆与长度相称得宜。中间几肋最为拱曲。在阿萨西德斯人中，它们被用作梁木，以在小溪上铺行人桥。
端详这些肋骨，我不由重新为书中屡次述及的情形所触动：鲸的骨架绝然不是其披肉之形的模子。特朗克岛最大的一根肋——中间某肋——位于鱼身生前深度最大之处。而今，这特定鲸披肉躯体之最大深度至少十六英尺；而相应之肋仅测得八英尺有余。故此这根肋只传达了那部分活体宏大的一半概念。此外，有一段路，我现在只看见裸露的脊柱，而那里一度裹着以吨计的额外血肉、筋肌、脏腑。更甚者，那宽大的鳍，我在此只见到几节错乱的骨；而那沉重威严却无骨的尾叶，竟是一片全然的空白！
于是我想，胆怯而未远行的人，只凭凝望这和平林中伸展的枯瘦死骨，便欲正确理解这奇鲸，是何等虚妄愚妄。不。唯在至速之险的中心；唯在它怒尾的漩涡之中；唯在深邃无涯的海上，那全然披肉的鲸才能被真实而鲜活地识破。
但说脊柱。对此，我们最能考量它的方式，是用起重机将它的骨节高高叠起。非仓促可为之事。但既已完成，它看去颇似庞培之柱。
总计四十余节脊椎，在骨架上并未锁合。它们大多如哥特式尖塔上的大瘤块，砌成厚重石工的严实层列。最大者，一中间节，宽不及三英尺，深逾四英尺。最小者，脊柱细入尾处，宽仅两英寸，看去略似白色台球。有人告我尚有更小者，但已被祭司的孩童——几个吃人的小顽童——偷去打弹珠丢了。由此我们可见，即便最巨活物之脊柱，终也细入孩童的戏耍。
In the first place, I wish to lay before you a particular, plain
statement, touching the living bulk of this leviathan, whose skeleton
we are briefly to exhibit. Such a statement may prove useful here.
According to a careful calculation I have made, and which I partly base
upon Captain Scoresby’s estimate, of seventy tons for the largest sized
Greenland whale of sixty feet in length; according to my careful
calculation, I say, a Sperm Whale of the largest magnitude, between
eighty-five and ninety feet in length, and something less than forty
feet in its fullest circumference, such a whale will weigh at least
ninety tons; so that, reckoning thirteen men to a ton, he would
considerably outweigh the combined population of a whole village of one
thousand one hundred inhabitants.
Think you not then that brains, like yoked cattle, should be put to
this leviathan, to make him at all budge to any landsman’s imagination?
Having already in various ways put before you his skull, spout-hole,
jaw, teeth, tail, forehead, fins, and divers other parts, I shall now
simply point out what is most interesting in the general bulk of his
unobstructed bones. But as the colossal skull embraces so very large a
proportion of the entire extent of the skeleton; as it is by far the
most complicated part; and as nothing is to be repeated concerning it
in this chapter, you must not fail to carry it in your mind, or under
your arm, as we proceed, otherwise you will not gain a complete notion
of the general structure we are about to view.
In length, the Sperm Whale’s skeleton at Tranque measured seventy-two
feet; so that when fully invested and extended in life, he must have
been ninety feet long; for in the whale, the skeleton loses about one
fifth in length compared with the living body. Of this seventy-two
feet, his skull and jaw comprised some twenty feet, leaving some fifty
feet of plain back-bone. Attached to this back-bone, for something less
than a third of its length, was the mighty circular basket of ribs
which once enclosed his vitals.
To me this vast ivory-ribbed chest, with the long, unrelieved spine,
extending far away from it in a straight line, not a little resembled
the hull of a great ship new-laid upon the stocks, when only some
twenty of her naked bow-ribs are inserted, and the keel is otherwise,
for the time, but a long, disconnected timber.
The ribs were ten on a side. The first, to begin from the neck, was
nearly six feet long; the second, third, and fourth were each
successively longer, till you came to the climax of the fifth, or one
of the middle ribs, which measured eight feet and some inches. From
that part, the remaining ribs diminished, till the tenth and last only
spanned five feet and some inches. In general thickness, they all bore
a seemly correspondence to their length. The middle ribs were the most
arched. In some of the Arsacides they are used for beams whereon to lay
footpath bridges over small streams.
In considering these ribs, I could not but be struck anew with the
circumstance, so variously repeated in this book, that the skeleton of
the whale is by no means the mould of his invested form. The largest of
the Tranque ribs, one of the middle ones, occupied that part of the
fish which, in life, is greatest in depth. Now, the greatest depth of
the invested body of this particular whale must have been at least
sixteen feet; whereas, the corresponding rib measured but little more
than eight feet. So that this rib only conveyed half of the true notion
of the living magnitude of that part. Besides, for some way, where I
now saw but a naked spine, all that had been once wrapped round with
tons of added bulk in flesh, muscle, blood, and bowels. Still more, for
the ample fins, I here saw but a few disordered joints; and in place of
the weighty and majestic, but boneless flukes, an utter blank!
How vain and foolish, then, thought I, for timid untravelled man to try
to comprehend aright this wondrous whale, by merely poring over his
dead attenuated skeleton, stretched in this peaceful wood. No. Only in
the heart of quickest perils; only when within the eddyings of his
angry flukes; only on the profound unbounded sea, can the fully
invested whale be truly and livingly found out.
But the spine. For that, the best way we can consider it is, with a
crane, to pile its bones high up on end. No speedy enterprise. But now
it’s done, it looks much like Pompey’s Pillar.
There are forty and odd vertebræ in all, which in the skeleton are not
locked together. They mostly lie like the great knobbed blocks on a
Gothic spire, forming solid courses of heavy masonry. The largest, a
middle one, is in width something less than three feet, and in depth
more than four. The smallest, where the spine tapers away into the
tail, is only two inches in width, and looks something like a white
billiard-ball. I was told that there were still smaller ones, but they
had been lost by some little cannibal urchins, the priest’s children,
who had stolen them to play marbles with. Thus we see how that the
spine of even the hugest of living things tapers off at last into
simple child’s play.
