A few quotes from the preface to "moby dick"

ŒThe Indian Sea breedeth the most and the biggest
fishes that a among which the Whales and Whirlpooles
called Balaene, take up as much in length as four acres or
arpens of land.¹ ‹HOLLAND¹S PLINY.

ŒIf you should write a fable for little fishes, you would
make them speak like great wales.¹ ‹GOLDSMITH TO
JOHNSON.

ŒThe Spermacetti Whale found by the Nantuckois, is
an active, fierce animal, and requires vast address and
boldness in the fishermen.¹ ‹THOMAS JEFFERSON¹S
WHALE MEMORIAL TO THE FRENCH
MINISTER IN 1778.

ŒA tenth branch of the king¹s 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.¹ ‹BLACKSTONE.

ŒIn the free element beneath me swam,
Floundered and dived, in play, in chace, in battle,
Fishes of every colour, form, and kind;
Which language cannot paint, and mariner
Had never seen; from dread Leviathan
To insect millions peopling every wave:
Gather¹d in shoals immense, like floating islands,
Led by mysterious instincts through that waste
And trackless region, though on every side
Assaulted by voracious enemies,
Whales, sharks, and monsters, arm¹d in front or jaw,
With swords, saws, spiral horns, or hooked fangs.¹ ‹
MONTGOMERY¹S WORLD BEFORE THE
FLOOD.

ŒIo! Paean! Io! sing.
To the finny people¹s king.
Not a mightier whale than this
In the vast Atlantic is;
Not a fatter fish than he,
Flounders round the Polar Sea.¹ ‹CHARLES LAMB¹S
TRIUMPH OF THE WHALE.

Lazarus

--
Remover the rock from the email address