{"id":"01KF7FPSCE4AMQQ7EN8NED9S94","cid":"bafkreihn5genn3lmkxq66belwzy5l4kzewxdvn4b3ztaebebztwwt74vae","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":15172,"extracted_at":"2026-01-18T02:42:20.407Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 5","source_file":"01KESYVB66H8YEVTN88DWE9W8D","start_line":15112,"text":"lake—evinced a wondrous fearlessness and confidence, or else a still\r\nbecharmed panic which it was impossible not to marvel at. Like\r\nhousehold dogs they came snuffling round us, right up to our gunwales,\r\nand touching them; till it almost seemed that some spell had suddenly\r\ndomesticated them. Queequeg patted their foreheads; Starbuck scratched\r\ntheir backs with his lance; but fearful of the consequences, for the\r\ntime refrained from darting it.\r\n\r\nBut far beneath this wondrous world upon the surface, another and still\r\nstranger world met our eyes as we gazed over the side. For, suspended\r\nin those watery vaults, floated the forms of the nursing mothers of the\r\nwhales, and those that by their enormous girth seemed shortly to become\r\nmothers. The lake, as I have hinted, was to a considerable depth\r\nexceedingly transparent; and as human infants while suckling will\r\ncalmly and fixedly gaze away from the breast, as if leading two\r\ndifferent lives at the time; and while yet drawing mortal nourishment,\r\nbe still spiritually feasting upon some unearthly reminiscence;—even so\r\ndid the young of these whales seem looking up towards us, but not at\r\nus, as if we were but a bit of Gulfweed in their new-born sight.\r\nFloating on their sides, the mothers also seemed quietly eyeing us. One\r\nof these little infants, that from certain queer tokens seemed hardly a\r\nday old, might have measured some fourteen feet in length, and some six\r\nfeet in girth. He was a little frisky; though as yet his body seemed\r\nscarce yet recovered from that irksome position it had so lately\r\noccupied in the maternal reticule; where, tail to head, and all ready\r\nfor the final spring, the unborn whale lies bent like a Tartar’s bow.\r\nThe delicate side-fins, and the palms of his flukes, still freshly\r\nretained the plaited crumpled appearance of a baby’s ears newly arrived\r\nfrom foreign parts.\r\n\r\n“Line! line!” cried Queequeg, looking over the gunwale; “him fast! him\r\nfast!—Who line him! Who struck?—Two whale; one big, one little!”\r\n\r\n“What ails ye, man?” cried Starbuck.\r\n\r\n“Look-e here,” said Queequeg, pointing down.\r\n\r\nAs when the stricken whale, that from the tub has reeled out hundreds\r\nof fathoms of rope; as, after deep sounding, he floats up again, and\r\nshows the slackened curling line buoyantly rising and spiralling\r\ntowards the air; so now, Starbuck saw long coils of the umbilical cord\r\nof Madame Leviathan, by which the young cub seemed still tethered to\r\nits dam. Not seldom in the rapid vicissitudes of the chase, this\r\nnatural line, with the maternal end loose, becomes entangled with the\r\nhempen one, so that the cub is thereby trapped. Some of the subtlest\r\nsecrets of the seas seemed divulged to us in this enchanted pond. We\r\nsaw young Leviathan amours in the deep.*\r\n\r\n*The sperm whale, as with all other species of the Leviathan, but\r\nunlike most other fish, breeds indifferently at all seasons; after a\r\ngestation which may probably be set down at nine months, producing but\r\none at a time; though in some few known instances giving birth to an\r\nEsau and Jacob:—a contingency provided for in suckling by two teats,\r\ncuriously situated, one on each side of the anus; but the breasts\r\nthemselves extend upwards from that. When by chance these precious\r\nparts in a nursing whale are cut by the hunter’s lance, the mother’s\r\npouring milk and blood rivallingly discolour the sea for rods. The milk\r\nis very sweet and rich; it has been tasted by man; it might do well\r\nwith strawberries. When overflowing with mutual esteem, the whales\r\nsalute _more hominum_.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 5"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KF7FPMFSMJT6NVJR448ANF6Z","peer_label":"Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KF7FPMFSMJT6NVJR448ANF6Z","peer_label":"Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"partOf"},{"peer":"01KF7FPKDT5SHSH1ZQV6ABHQCA","peer_label":"Moby Dick; Or, The Whale","peer_type":"book","predicate":"partOf"},{"peer":"01KESYJX0Z6XE0HWTS5N3SDG0B","peer_label":"The Classics","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KF7FPSDCZV1WH2Y5WC980QBM","peer_label":"Chunk 6","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KF7FPSDQ81N3P4JBADA3KQEB","peer_label":"Chunk 4","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-18T02:42:20.962Z","ts":"2026-01-18T02:42:28.827Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KF7FCDA7SCSJ6A30TDPDSJQV"}}