When two large, loaded Indian-men chance to crowd and crush towards each other in the docks, what do the sailors do? They do not suspend between them, at the point of coming contact, any merely hard substance, like iron or wood. No, they hold there a large, round wad of tow and cork, enveloped in the thickest and toughest of ox-hide. That bravely and uninjured takes the jam which would have snapped all their oaken handspikes and iron crow-bars. By itself this sufficiently illustrates the obvious fact I drive at. But supplementary to this, it has hypothetically occurred to me, that as ordinary fish possess what is called a swimming bladder in them, capable, at will, of distension or contraction; and as the Sperm Whale, as far as I know, has no such provision in him; considering, too, the otherwise inexplicable manner in which he now depresses his head altogether beneath the surface, and anon swims with it high elevated out of the water; considering the unobstructed elasticity of its envelope; considering the unique interior of his head; it has hypothetically occurred to me, I say, that those mystical lung-celled honeycombs there may possibly have some hitherto unknown and unsuspected connexion with the outer air, so as to be susceptible to atmospheric distension and contraction.
当两个身材高大、喝醉了酒的印度群岛人偶然在码头上打起架来的时候，你想水手们是怎样办的？在两人就要相碰的时分，他们可不用什么铁器或者木头那种硬东西，来从中拦住他们。不，他们是用一个外面包着最厚最粗的生牛皮，里面塞着绳索的又圆又大的东西。那件无畏而不会伤人的东西往那中间一塞，那股力量准会教一切橡木梃和铁撬都给折断。光是这个譬喻，就足以说明我所要说的明显的事实了。不过，这里得补充一点（这也是我偶然想到的臆测），那就是，普通鱼类的身上都有一种能够自由胀缩的、叫做鳔的东西；然而，就我所知，抹香鲸身上可没有这种设备；而且，就它那以另一种费解的姿势，一会儿把头完全沉到水里，再一会儿又用那姿势从水里把头高高抬起而游去的情况说来，就它那层包着的东西具有伸缩自如的能耐说来，就它那只珍奇无双的头颅的内部结构说来；我说，我偶然所想到的臆测就是，它那些奥妙的肺细胞似的蜂窝可能还有一种直到如今还未被发现、而又无疑是跟外面空气有联系的东西，这才使得它能胀缩自如，吸收空气。