{"id":"01KFNR88AMXF0G2TPQ4C8849JX","cid":"bafkreiau663ys5qqlvlfmthgdjg3xyp6ptv4hoeduf3g6u3g7kaxizejfy","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":7404,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:03.421Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":7347,"text":"the Sperm Whale, but whose sole knowledge of the leviathan is\r\nrestricted to the ignoble monster primitively pursued in the North;\r\nseated on their hatches, these men will hearken with a childish\r\nfireside interest and awe, to the wild, strange tales of Southern\r\nwhaling. Nor is the pre-eminent tremendousness of the great Sperm Whale\r\nanywhere more feelingly comprehended, than on board of those prows\r\nwhich stem him.\r\n\r\nAnd as if the now tested reality of his might had in former legendary\r\ntimes thrown its shadow before it; we find some book\r\nnaturalists—Olassen and Povelson—declaring the Sperm Whale not only to\r\nbe a consternation to every other creature in the sea, but also to be\r\nso incredibly ferocious as continually to be athirst for human blood.\r\nNor even down to so late a time as Cuvier’s, were these or almost\r\nsimilar impressions effaced. For in his Natural History, the Baron\r\nhimself affirms that at sight of the Sperm Whale, all fish (sharks\r\nincluded) are “struck with the most lively terrors,” and “often in the\r\nprecipitancy of their flight dash themselves against the rocks with\r\nsuch violence as to cause instantaneous death.” And however the general\r\nexperiences in the fishery may amend such reports as these; yet in\r\ntheir full terribleness, even to the bloodthirsty item of Povelson, the\r\nsuperstitious belief in them is, in some vicissitudes of their\r\nvocation, revived in the minds of the hunters.\r\n\r\nSo that overawed by the rumors and portents concerning him, not a few\r\nof the fishermen recalled, in reference to Moby Dick, the earlier days\r\nof the Sperm Whale fishery, when it was oftentimes hard to induce long\r\npractised Right whalemen to embark in the perils of this new and daring\r\nwarfare; such men protesting that although other leviathans might be\r\nhopefully pursued, yet to chase and point lance at such an apparition\r\nas the Sperm Whale was not for mortal man. That to attempt it, would be\r\ninevitably to be torn into a quick eternity. On this head, there are\r\nsome remarkable documents that may be consulted.\r\n\r\nNevertheless, some there were, who even in the face of these things\r\nwere ready to give chase to Moby Dick; and a still greater number who,\r\nchancing only to hear of him distantly and vaguely, without the\r\nspecific details of any certain calamity, and without superstitious\r\naccompaniments, were sufficiently hardy not to flee from the battle if\r\noffered.\r\n\r\nOne of the wild suggestions referred to, as at last coming to be linked\r\nwith the White Whale in the minds of the superstitiously inclined, was\r\nthe unearthly conceit that Moby Dick was ubiquitous; that he had\r\nactually been encountered in opposite latitudes at one and the same\r\ninstant of time.\r\n\r\nNor, credulous as such minds must have been, was this conceit\r\naltogether without some faint show of superstitious probability. For as\r\nthe secrets of the currents in the seas have never yet been divulged,\r\neven 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","title":"Chunk 2"},"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":"01KFNR887XT6Q6QDRQTQKYS6N9","peer_label":"Chunk 3","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR88DP3YVEVMFH76S9993X","peer_label":"Chunk 1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:03.988Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:16.567Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}