Working with too much data: wc, head, tail, less

me@www14:~$ sudo cat /var/log/mail.log | wc -l 7797

me@www14:~$ sudo cat /var/log/mail.log | head -n 1 Feb 5 06:27:05 box postfix/pickup[7017]: ABD413CA003: uid=33 from=<www-data>

me@www14:~$ sudo cat /var/log/mail.log | tail -n 1 Feb 8 15:24:04 www14 postfix/qmgr[4121]: 4CB623CA002: removed

me@www14:~$ sudo cat /var/log/mail.log | tail -n 5000 | head -n 1 Feb 6 22:06:16 www14 postfix/qmgr[4121]: 6787E3CA002: removed

me@box:~$ sudo cat /var/log/mail.log | less