{"id":"01KFNR89NDM920YXE2K7Z3FWMG","cid":"bafkreicbb5cuq5samwign5pcxopwwckgcl57isu3sobomcozi545n2zy44","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":14063,"extracted_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:04.750Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 14","source_file":"01KFNR0Z394A878Y5AQ63MQEM2","start_line":14001,"text":"a thousand thighs in his tail, Leviathan had run his head under the\r\nmountains of the sea, to hide him from the Pequod’s fish-spears!\r\n\r\nIn that sloping afternoon sunlight, the shadows that the three boats\r\nsent down beneath the surface, must have been long enough and broad\r\nenough to shade half Xerxes’ army. Who can tell how appalling to the\r\nwounded whale must have been such huge phantoms flitting over his head!\r\n\r\n“Stand by, men; he stirs,” cried Starbuck, as the three lines suddenly\r\nvibrated in the water, distinctly conducting upwards to them, as by\r\nmagnetic wires, the life and death throbs of the whale, so that every\r\noarsman felt them in his seat. The next moment, relieved in great part\r\nfrom the downward strain at the bows, the boats gave a sudden bounce\r\nupwards, as a small icefield will, when a dense herd of white bears are\r\nscared from it into the sea.\r\n\r\n“Haul in! Haul in!” cried Starbuck again; “he’s rising.”\r\n\r\nThe lines, of which, hardly an instant before, not one hand’s breadth\r\ncould have been gained, were now in long quick coils flung back all\r\ndripping into the boats, and soon the whale broke water within two\r\nship’s lengths of the hunters.\r\n\r\nHis motions plainly denoted his extreme exhaustion. In most land\r\nanimals there are certain valves or flood-gates in many of their veins,\r\nwhereby when wounded, the blood is in some degree at least instantly\r\nshut off in certain directions. Not so with the whale; one of whose\r\npeculiarities it is to have an entire non-valvular structure of the\r\nblood-vessels, so that when pierced even by so small a point as a\r\nharpoon, a deadly drain is at once begun upon his whole arterial\r\nsystem; and when this is heightened by the extraordinary pressure of\r\nwater at a great distance below the surface, his life may be said to\r\npour from him in incessant streams. Yet so vast is the quantity of\r\nblood in him, and so distant and numerous its interior fountains, that\r\nhe will keep thus bleeding and bleeding for a considerable period; even\r\nas in a drought a river will flow, whose source is in the well-springs\r\nof far-off and undiscernible hills. Even now, when the boats pulled\r\nupon this whale, and perilously drew over his swaying flukes, and the\r\nlances were darted into him, they were followed by steady jets from the\r\nnew made wound, which kept continually playing, while the natural\r\nspout-hole in his head was only at intervals, however rapid, sending\r\nits affrighted moisture into the air. From this last vent no blood yet\r\ncame, because no vital part of him had thus far been struck. His life,\r\nas they significantly call it, was untouched.\r\n\r\nAs the boats now more closely surrounded him, the whole upper part of\r\nhis form, with much of it that is ordinarily submerged, was plainly\r\nrevealed. His eyes, or rather the places where his eyes had been, were\r\nbeheld. As strange misgrown masses gather in the knot-holes of the\r\nnoblest oaks when prostrate, so from the points which the whale’s eyes\r\nhad once occupied, now protruded blind bulbs, horribly pitiable to see.\r\nBut pity there was none. For all his old age, and his one arm, and his\r\nblind eyes, he must die the death and be murdered, in order to light\r\nthe gay bridals and other merry-makings of men, and also to illuminate\r\nthe solemn churches that preach unconditional inoffensiveness by all to\r\nall. Still rolling in his blood, at last he partially disclosed a\r\nstrangely discoloured bunch or protuberance, the size of a bushel, low\r\ndown on the flank.\r\n\r\n“A nice spot,” cried Flask; “just let me prick him there once.”\r\n\r\n“Avast!” cried Starbuck, “there’s no need of that!”\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 14"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFNR84AAHSNQ4BFJ0ASPHB53","peer_label":"76","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFNR84AAHSNQ4BFJ0ASPHB53","peer_label":"76","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":"01KFNR89PVB6EMTQQ5YGMV63ZK","peer_label":"Chunk 15","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KFNR89MGXNM5A7DXKM1ZPPMK","peer_label":"Chunk 13","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-23T15:41:05.397Z","ts":"2026-01-23T15:41:17.636Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}