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1851 |
Moby-Dick; or, the whale.
New York, Harper & Bros.: xxiii + 634.
–A footnote to Chap. 32 ("Cetology") reads as follows: {"I am aware that down to the present time, the fish styled Lamatins [sic] and Dugongs (Pig-fish and Sow-fish of the Coffins of Nantucket) are included by many naturalists among the whales. But as these pig-fish are a nosy, contemptible set, mostly lurking in the mouths of rivers, and feeding on wet hay, and especially as they do not spout, I deny their credentials as whales; and have presented them with their passports to quit the Kingdom of Cetology."} But then, that is a Kingdom they never wished to enter in the first place!
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