But of my own knowledge, I know that down to the year 1850, sharks and shad, alewives and herring, against Linnaeus’s express edict, were still found dividing the possession of the same seas with the Leviathan.
This was Melville insisting whales were fish despite scientific consensus that they were mammals. He then proceeded to waste the next 15 minutes of his readers' time introducing his own homemade class…
