I would give a look at Moby-Dick, at the beginning of which Melville offers dozens of quotations about whales that he passes off as the research of a "sub-sub-librarian." Of course throughout Moby_Dick Melville himself writes many memorable things about whales, and not just Sperm Whales, but what he calls the Octavio, Quarto, and Folio members of the species. There is a concordat of Moby-Dick, I'm fairly sure, which can be found at any good university library. A concordat cross references passages by content. Of course, you aren't "fishing" for quotes, but "mammaling" for them. But, that's a much less evocative term. Eric Siegel [log in to unmask]