{"id":"01KFNR887XT6Q6QDRQTQKYS6N9","cid":"bafkreihdqw6zrroccubr6cui3p346cjyceahvdiovaj4t6m2xbyafrokbu","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":7458,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:03.421Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":7397,"text":"even to the most erudite research; so the hidden ways of the Sperm\r\nWhale when beneath the surface remain, in great part, unaccountable to\r\nhis pursuers; and from time to time have originated the most curious\r\nand contradictory speculations regarding them, especially concerning\r\nthe mystic modes whereby, after sounding to a great depth, he\r\ntransports himself with such vast swiftness to the most widely distant\r\npoints.\r\n\r\nIt is a thing well known to both American and English whale-ships, and\r\nas well a thing placed upon authoritative record years ago by Scoresby,\r\nthat some whales have been captured far north in the Pacific, in whose\r\nbodies have been found the barbs of harpoons darted in the Greenland\r\nseas. Nor is it to be gainsaid, that in some of these instances it has\r\nbeen declared that the interval of time between the two assaults could\r\nnot have exceeded very many days. Hence, by inference, it has been\r\nbelieved by some whalemen, that the Nor’ West Passage, so long a\r\nproblem to man, was never a problem to the whale. So that here, in the\r\nreal living experience of living men, the prodigies related in old\r\ntimes of the inland Strello mountain in Portugal (near whose top there\r\nwas said to be a lake in which the wrecks of ships floated up to the\r\nsurface); and that still more wonderful story of the Arethusa fountain\r\nnear Syracuse (whose waters were believed to have come from the Holy\r\nLand by an underground passage); these fabulous narrations are almost\r\nfully equalled by the realities of the whalemen.\r\n\r\nForced into familiarity, then, with such prodigies as these; and\r\nknowing that after repeated, intrepid assaults, the White Whale had\r\nescaped alive; it cannot be much matter of surprise that some whalemen\r\nshould go still further in their superstitions; declaring Moby Dick not\r\nonly ubiquitous, but immortal (for immortality is but ubiquity in\r\ntime); that though groves of spears should be planted in his flanks, he\r\nwould still swim away unharmed; or if indeed he should ever be made to\r\nspout thick blood, such a sight would be but a ghastly deception; for\r\nagain in unensanguined billows hundreds of leagues away, his unsullied\r\njet would once more be seen.\r\n\r\nBut even stripped of these supernatural surmisings, there was enough in\r\nthe earthly make and incontestable character of the monster to strike\r\nthe imagination with unwonted power. For, it was not so much his\r\nuncommon bulk that so much distinguished him from other sperm whales,\r\nbut, as was elsewhere thrown out—a peculiar snow-white wrinkled\r\nforehead, and a high, pyramidical white hump. These were his prominent\r\nfeatures; the tokens whereby, even in the limitless, uncharted seas, he\r\nrevealed his identity, at a long distance, to those who knew him.\r\n\r\nThe rest of his body was so streaked, and spotted, and marbled with the\r\nsame shrouded hue, that, in the end, he had gained his distinctive\r\nappellation of the White Whale; a name, indeed, literally justified by\r\nhis vivid aspect, when seen gliding at high noon through a dark blue\r\nsea, leaving a milky-way wake of creamy foam, all spangled with golden\r\ngleamings.\r\n\r\nNor was it his unwonted magnitude, nor his remarkable hue, nor yet his\r\ndeformed lower jaw, that so much invested the whale with natural\r\nterror, as that unexampled, intelligent malignity which, according to\r\nspecific accounts, he had over and over again evinced in his assaults.\r\nMore than all, his treacherous retreats struck more of dismay than\r\nperhaps aught else. For, when swimming before his exulting pursuers,\r\nwith every apparent symptom of alarm, he had several times been known\r\nto turn round suddenly, and, bearing down upon them, either stave their\r\nboats to splinters, or drive them back in consternation to their ship.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR84DQHQD30H34NJMFZQMH","peer_label":"41","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR84DQHQD30H34NJMFZQMH","peer_label":"41","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"partOf"},{"peer":"01KFNR81RMVAX2BBMMBW51V97D","peer_label":"Moby Dick; Or, The Whale","peer_type":"novel","predicate":"partOf"},{"peer":"01KFNR0H0Q791Y1SMZWEQ09FGV","peer_label":"Moby Dick","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KFNR88EV3Z9R5J7P894GN2M7","peer_label":"Chunk 4","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR88AMXF0G2TPQ4C8849JX","peer_label":"Chunk 2","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:03.713Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:16.554Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}