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- # BOOK I. (Folio), CHAPTER II. (Right Whale).
## Overview
This is "BOOK I. (Folio), CHAPTER II. (Right Whale).", a chapter from the novel [Moby-Dick; or, The Whale](arke:01KG8AJ9GN1K052QJEZVGKXJ0T). It was extracted from the plain text file [moby_dick.txt](arke:01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6) between lines 5743 and 5769.
## Context
This chapter is part of [Moby-Dick; or, The Whale](arke:01KG8AJ9GN1K052QJEZVGKXJ0T), which is itself included in the [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection. It follows [BOOK I. (Folio), CHAPTER I. (Sperm Whale).](arke:01KG8AK7FT4PFHT0SGG6JPMN5A) and precedes [BOOK I. (Folio), CHAPTER III. (Fin-Back).](arke:01KG8AK7FTC2DWT5T7DSHJ6QQ5) within the novel's structure.
## Contents
The chapter discusses the "Right Whale," identifying it as the leviathan first regularly hunted by man, known for yielding whalebone (baleen) and "whale oil." It details the various names used by fishermen for this species, including "The Whale," "Greenland Whale," "Black Whale," "Great Whale," and "True Whale." The text also explores the historical confusion surrounding the species' identity, referencing its classification as the Great Mysticetus by English naturalists and its pursuit by Dutch, English, and American whalers in different oceans. The author notes the lack of definitive facts to distinguish between the Greenland whale and the American right whale, promising further discussion on the right whale in relation to the sperm whale.
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- BOOK I. (Folio), CHAPTER II. (Right Whale).
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- BOOK I. (_Folio_), CHAPTER II. (_Right Whale_).—In one respect this is
the most venerable of the leviathans, being the one first regularly
hunted by man. It yields the article commonly known as whalebone or
baleen; and the oil specially known as “whale oil,” an inferior article
in commerce. Among the fishermen, he is indiscriminately designated by
all the following titles: The Whale; the Greenland Whale; the Black
Whale; the Great Whale; the True Whale; the Right Whale. There is a
deal of obscurity concerning the identity of the species thus
multitudinously baptised. What then is the whale, which I include in
the second species of my Folios? It is the Great Mysticetus of the
English naturalists; the Greenland Whale of the English whalemen; the
Baleine Ordinaire of the French whalemen; the Growlands Walfish of the
Swedes. It is the whale which for more than two centuries past has been
hunted by the Dutch and English in the Arctic seas; it is the whale
which the American fishermen have long pursued in the Indian ocean, on
the Brazil Banks, on the Nor’ West Coast, and various other parts of
the world, designated by them Right Whale Cruising Grounds.
Some pretend to see a difference between the Greenland whale of the
English and the right whale of the Americans. But they precisely agree
in all their grand features; nor has there yet been presented a single
determinate fact upon which to ground a radical distinction. It is by
endless subdivisions based upon the most inconclusive differences, that
some departments of natural history become so repellingly intricate.
The right whale will be elsewhere treated of at some length, with
reference to elucidating the sperm whale.
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- BOOK I. (Folio), CHAPTER II. (Right Whale).