The Moby-Dick Bible
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Themes › Nature Of Life

Nature Of Life

1 passage in the novel carry this mark, in the order they appear.

But owing to his marked internal structure which gives him regular lungs, like a human being’s, the whale can only live by inhaling the disengaged air in the open atmosphere. Wherefore the necessity for his periodical visits to the upper world. But he cannot in any degree breathe through his mouth, for, in his ordinary attitude, the Sperm Whale’s mouth is buried at least eight feet beneath the surface; and what is still more, his windpipe has no connexion with his mouth.

Chapter 85, The Fountain · verse 2

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