Page:Moby-Dick (1851) US edition.djvu/25

xvii "Spain——a great whale stranded on the shores of Europe."

"A tenth branch of the king's ordinary revenue, said to be grounded on the consideration of his guarding and protecting the seas from pirates and robbers, is the right to royal fish, which are whale and sturgeon. And these, when either thrown ashore or caught near the coast, are the property of the king."

"Ten or fifteen gallons of blood are thrown out of the heart at a stroke, with immense velocity."

"The aorta of a whale is larger in the bore than the main pipe of the water-works at London Bridge, and the water roaring in its passage through that pipe is inferior in impetus and velocity to the blood gushing from the whale's heart."

"The whale is a mammiferous animal without hind feet."