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Now
,
by
all
odds
,
the
most
ancient
extant
portrait
anyways
purporting
to
be
the
whale
's
,
is
to
be
found
in
the
famous
cavern-pagoda
of
Elephants
,
in
India
.
The
Brahmins
maintain
that
in
the
almost
endless
sculptures
of
that
immemorial
pagoda
,
all
the
trades
and
pursuits
,
every
conceivable
avocation
of
man
,
were
prefigured
ages
before
any
of
them
actually
came
into
being
.
No
wonder
then
,
that
in
some
sort
our
noble
profession
of
whaling
should
have
been
there
shadowed
forth
.
The
Hindoo
whale
referred
to
,
occurs
in
a
separate
department
of
the
wall
,
depicting
the
incarnation
of
Vishnu
in
the
form
of
leviathan
,
learnedly
known
as
the
Matse
Avatar
.
But
though
this
sculpture
is
half
man
and
half
whale
,
so
as
only
to
give
the
tail
of
the
latter
,
yet
that
small
section
of
him
is
all
wrong
.
It
looks
more
like
the
tapering
of
an
anaconda
,
than
the
broad
palms
of
the
true
whale
's
majestic
flukes
.
But
go
to
the
old
Galleries
,
and
look
now
at
a
great
Christian
painter
's
portrait
of
this
fish
;
for
he
succeeds
no
better
than
the
antediluvian
Hindoo
.
It
is
Guido
's
picture
of
Perseus
rescuing
Andromeda
from
the
sea-monster
or
whale
.
Where
did
Guido
get
the
model
of
such
a
strange
creature
as
that
?
Nor
does
Hogarth
,
in
painting
the
same
scene
in
his
own
"
Perseus
Descending
,
"
make
out
one
whit
better
.
The
huge
corpulence
of
that
Hogarthian
monster
undulates
on
the
surface
,
scarcely
drawing
one
inch
of
water
.
It
has
a
sort
of
howdah
on
its
back
,
and
its
distended
tusked
mouth
into
which
the
billows
are
rolling
,
might
be
taken
for
the
Traitors
'
Gate
leading
from
the
Thames
by
water
into
the
Tower
.
Then
,
there
are
the
Prodromus
whales
of
old
Scotch
Sibbald
,
and
Jonah
's
whale
,
as
depicted
in
the
prints
of
old
Bibles
and
the
cuts
of
old
primers
.
What
shall
be
said
of
these
?
As
for
the
book-binder
's
whale
winding
like
a
vine-stalk
round
the
stock
of
a
descending
anchor
--
as
stamped
and
gilded
on
the
backs
and
titlepages
of
many
books
both
old
and
new
--
that
is
a
very
picturesque
but
purely
fabulous
creature
,
imitated
,
I
take
it
,
from
the
like
figures
on
antique
vases
.
Though
universally
denominated
a
dolphin
,
I
nevertheless
call
this
book-binder
's
fish
an
attempt
at
a
whale
;
because
it
was
so
intended
when
the
device
was
first
introduced
.
It
was
introduced
by
an
old
Italian
publisher
somewhere
about
the
15th
century
,
during
the
Revival
of
Learning
;
and
in
those
days
,
and
even
down
to
a
comparatively
late
period
,
dolphins
were
popularly
supposed
to
be
a
species
of
the
Leviathan
.
In
the
vignettes
and
other
embellishments
of
some
ancient
books
you
will
at
times
meet
with
very
curious
touches
at
the
whale
,
where
all
manner
of
spouts
,
jets
d'eau
,
hot
springs
and
cold
,
Saratoga
and
Baden-Baden
,
come
bubbling
up
from
his
unexhausted
brain
.
In
the
title-page
of
the
original
edition
of
the
"
Advancement
of
Learning
"
you
will
find
some
curious
whales
.
But
quitting
all
these
unprofessional
attempts
,
let
us
glance
at
those
pictures
of
leviathan
purporting
to
be
sober
,
scientific
delineations
,
by
those
who
know
.
In
old
Harris
's
collection
of
voyages
there
are
some
plates
of
whales
extracted
from
a
Dutch
book
of
voyages
,
A.D.
1671
,
entitled
"
A
Whaling
Voyage
to
Spitzbergen
in
the
ship
Jonas
in
the
Whale
,
Peter
Peterson
of
Friesland
,
master
.
"
In
one
of
those
plates
the
whales
,
like
great
rafts
of
logs
,
are
represented
lying
among
ice-isles
,
with
white
bears
running
over
their
living
backs
.
In
another
plate
,
the
prodigious
blunder
is
made
of
representing
the
whale
with
perpendicular
flukes
.
Then
again
,
there
is
an
imposing
quarto
,
written
by
one
Captain
Colnett
,
a
Post
Captain
in
the
English
navy
,
entitled
"
A
Voyage
round
Cape
Horn
into
the
South
Seas
,
for
the
purpose
of
extending
the
Spermaceti
Whale
Fisheries
.
"
In
this
book
is
an
outline
purporting
to
be
a
"
Picture
of
a
Physeter
or
Spermaceti
whale
,
drawn
by
scale
from
one
killed
on
the
coast
of
Mexico
,
August
,
1793
,
and
hoisted
on
deck
.
"
I
doubt
not
the
captain
had
this
veracious
picture
taken
for
the
benefit
of
his
marines
.
To
mention
but
one
thing
about
it
,
let
me
say
that
it
has
an
eye
which
applied
,
according
to
the
accompanying
scale
,
to
a
full
grown
sperm
whale
,
would
make
the
eye
of
that
whale
a
bow-window
some
five
feet
long
.
Ah
,
my
gallant
captain
,
why
did
ye
not
give
us
Jonah
looking
out
of
that
eye
!
Nor
are
the
most
conscientious
compilations
of
Natural
History
for
the
benefit
of
the
young
and
tender
,
free
from
the
same
heinousness
of
mistake
.
Look
at
that
popular
work
"
Goldsmith
's
Animated
Nature
.
"
In
the
abridged
London
edition
of
1807
,
there
are
plates
of
an
alleged
"
whale
"
and
a
"
narwhale
.
"
I
do
not
wish
to
seem
inelegant
,
but
this
unsightly
whale
looks
much
like
an
amputated
sow
;
and
,
as
for
the
narwhale
,
one
glimpse
at
it
is
enough
to
amaze
one
,
that
in
this
nineteenth
century
such
a
hippogriff
could
be
palmed
for
genuine
upon
any
intelligent
public
of
schoolboys
.
