{"id":"01KFNR888RR2J1A8B8F0B984WN","cid":"bafkreidsdh4n5nldazfwborqkmfmkc5qgwk6tr2phcecj44a5h2h26vlbe","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":8174,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:03.426Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":8127,"text":"Moby Dick had been periodically descried, lingering in those waters for\r\nawhile, as the sun, in its annual round, loiters for a predicted\r\ninterval in any one sign of the Zodiac. There it was, too, that most of\r\nthe deadly encounters with the white whale had taken place; there the\r\nwaves were storied with his deeds; there also was that tragic spot\r\nwhere the monomaniac old man had found the awful motive to his\r\nvengeance. But in the cautious comprehensiveness and unloitering\r\nvigilance with which Ahab threw his brooding soul into this unfaltering\r\nhunt, he would not permit himself to rest all his hopes upon the one\r\ncrowning fact above mentioned, however flattering it might be to those\r\nhopes; nor in the sleeplessness of his vow could he so tranquillize his\r\nunquiet heart as to postpone all intervening quest.\r\n\r\nNow, the Pequod had sailed from Nantucket at the very beginning of the\r\nSeason-on-the-Line. No possible endeavor then could enable her\r\ncommander to make the great passage southwards, double Cape Horn, and\r\nthen running down sixty degrees of latitude arrive in the equatorial\r\nPacific in time to cruise there. Therefore, he must wait for the next\r\nensuing season. Yet the premature hour of the Pequod’s sailing had,\r\nperhaps, been correctly selected by Ahab, with a view to this very\r\ncomplexion of things. Because, an interval of three hundred and\r\nsixty-five days and nights was before him; an interval which, instead\r\nof impatiently enduring ashore, he would spend in a miscellaneous hunt;\r\nif by chance the White Whale, spending his vacation in seas far remote\r\nfrom his periodical feeding-grounds, should turn up his wrinkled brow\r\noff the Persian Gulf, or in the Bengal Bay, or China Seas, or in any\r\nother waters haunted by his race. So that Monsoons, Pampas,\r\nNor’-Westers, Harmattans, Trades; any wind but the Levanter and Simoon,\r\nmight blow Moby Dick into the devious zig-zag world-circle of the\r\nPequod’s circumnavigating wake.\r\n\r\nBut granting all this; yet, regarded discreetly and coolly, seems it\r\nnot but a mad idea, this; that in the broad boundless ocean, one\r\nsolitary whale, even if encountered, should be thought capable of\r\nindividual recognition from his hunter, even as a white-bearded Mufti\r\nin the thronged thoroughfares of Constantinople? Yes. For the peculiar\r\nsnow-white brow of Moby Dick, and his snow-white hump, could not but be\r\nunmistakable. And have I not tallied the whale, Ahab would mutter to\r\nhimself, as after poring over his charts till long after midnight he\r\nwould throw himself back in reveries—tallied him, and shall he escape?\r\nHis broad fins are bored, and scalloped out like a lost sheep’s ear!\r\nAnd here, his mad mind would run on in a breathless race; till a\r\nweariness and faintness of pondering came over him; and in the open air\r\nof the deck he would seek to recover his strength. Ah, God! what\r\ntrances of torments does that man endure who is consumed with one\r\nunachieved revengeful desire. He sleeps with clenched hands; and wakes\r\nwith his own bloody nails in his palms.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR84DVP8SYA6W38MV4PDVN","peer_label":"44","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR84DVP8SYA6W38MV4PDVN","peer_label":"44","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":"01KFNR889KWH857TM7H6V32V6G","peer_label":"Chunk 3","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR888FP6BWQ32XREAVWZP9","peer_label":"Chunk 1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:03.926Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:16.484Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}