Arctic sketches 1; The Whales



Right Whale. "Some pretend to see a difference between the Greenland Whale of the English and the Right Whale of the Americans." (Chap.32 Moby Dick by Herman Melville)




Killer Whale."Exception might be taken to the name bestowed upon this whale, on the ground of its indistinctness. For we are all killers, on land and on sea; Bonapartes and Sharks included." (Chap.32 Moby Dick by Herman Melville)




Narwhale. "Strictly speaking, this horn is but a lengthened tusk, growing out from the jaw in a line a little depressed from the horizontal. But it is only found on the sinister side, which has an ill effect, giving its owner something analogous to the aspect of a clumsy left-handed man."(Chap.32 Moby Dick by Herman Melville)



Beluga whale. Unmentioned in Chapter 32 of Moby Dick. What might Melville have had to say about him?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kayerts and Carlier from Joseph Conrad's "An Outpost of Progress"

Image
"There were two white men in charge of the trading station. Kayerts, the chief, was short and fat; Carlier, the assistant, was tall, with a large head and a very broad trunk perched upon a long pair of thin legs." "Kayerts had been in the Administration of the Telegraphs, and knew how to express himself correctly....He regretted the streets, the pavements, the cafes, his friends of many years; all the things he used to see, day after day; all the thoughts suggested by familiar things--the thoughts effortless, monotonous, and soothing of a Government clerk; he regretted all the gossip, the small enmities, the mild venom, and the little jokes of Government offices." "Carlier, an ex-non-commissioned officer of cavalry in an army guaranteed from harm by several European Powers.." "Society, not from any tenderness, but because of its strange needs, had taken care of those two men, forbidding them all independent thought, all initiative, all departure from
Read more

Art my Grandfather collected 1; Sunset

Image
My Grandfather collected works of art like this many places in the world. Where the originals are now, I don't know; but I have a few photographs. This is either a sunset; I think a late sunset in Northern Norway (or possibly Iceland or even Greenland)..a near midnight sun. Who painted this, or when they painted it, is impossible for me to say. I'd guess it was painted in the second half of the 19th century. It's skilfully divided, I think, into a cold "artic" half: And the right side of the canvas is warmer and more summery (despite the distant iceberg):
Read more