In life, the visible surface of the Sperm Whale is not the least among the many marvels he presents. Almost invariably it is all over obliquely crossed and re-crossed with numberless straight marks in thick array, something like those in the finest Italian line engravings. But these marks do not seem to be impressed upon the isinglass substance above mentioned, but seem to be seen through it, as if they were engraved upon the body itself. Nor is this all. In some instances, to the quick, observant eye, those linear marks, as in a veritable engraving, but afford the ground for far other delineations. These are hieroglyphical; that is, if you call those mysterious cyphers on the walls of pyramids hieroglyphics, then that is the proper word to use in the present connexion. By my retentive memory of the hieroglyphics upon one Sperm Whale in particular, I was much struck with a plate representing the old Indian characters chiselled on the famous hieroglyphic palisades on the banks of the Upper Mississippi. Like those mystic rocks, too, the mystic-marked whale remains undecipherable. This allusion to the Indian rocks reminds me of another thing. Besides all the other phenomena which the exterior of the Sperm Whale presents, he not seldom displays the back, and more especially his flanks, effaced in great part of the regular linear appearance, by reason of numerous rude scratches, altogether of an irregular, random aspect.
这样，我们对那只气力旺盛的东西的硕大无朋就可获得一点印象了。光是它的那层外皮的一部分，就可以出产量如大湖的液体。以十桶作一吨计算，那么只要四分之三的鲸皮，就可以获得净重十吨的油了。一条活的抹香鲸的外表，就有不少的奇观。它的身上，简直全都密布有无数叉来叉去的直线条，有点象似最精美的意大利线雕画的线条。不过，这些线条好象并不是印在上述的那种云母片上，却似乎是透过云母片现出来的，仿佛这些线条都是本来就镂刻在它的身体上。不只如此，有时，在眼力迅捷机警的人看来，这些线条，不但象是真的雕刻，而且那底子看来还有更多的图样。这些都是一些象形文字，也就是说，如果你管金字塔的四壁上那些神秘的图记都叫做象形文字的话，那么，这个字眼用在这里正是最适切不过的了。我由于想到抹香鲸身上的象形文字，而特别教我想到上密西西比河堤那个著名的象形文字的断崖上，那块刻有古印第安字体的石碑，它给我的印象真是深刻。这种有神秘线条的大鲸，也正如那些神秘的岩石一样，至今仍是教人无法辨认。从这种印第安的岩石，又教我想到了另外一件事情。抹香鲸除了显露出它外表的其它各种现象以外，它倒也常常露出它的背脊，尤其更常常露出它的侧腹来，可是，由于它有许多粗陋的搔痕，加上五官不端正，反而大大地损害了它那线条整齐的外表。