{"id":"01KG8AP3WXMGY7H6S31NVRB7RM","cid":"bafkreifmt5xvzlqbus4baqcingug6pqad2mkzxdikqzhqzbpqexh65n4h4","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":17849,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:30.774Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6","start_line":17789,"text":"impregnable. And as upon the invasion of their valleys, the frosty\r\nSwiss have retreated to their mountains; so, hunted from the savannas\r\nand glades of the middle seas, the whale-bone whales can at last resort\r\nto their Polar citadels, and diving under the ultimate glassy barriers\r\nand walls there, come up among icy fields and floes; and in a charmed\r\ncircle of everlasting December, bid defiance to all pursuit from man.\r\n\r\nBut as perhaps fifty of these whale-bone whales are harpooned for one\r\ncachalot, some philosophers of the forecastle have concluded that this\r\npositive havoc has already very seriously diminished their battalions.\r\nBut though for some time past a number of these whales, not less than\r\n13,000, have been annually slain on the nor’ west coast by the\r\nAmericans alone; yet there are considerations which render even this\r\ncircumstance of little or no account as an opposing argument in this\r\nmatter.\r\n\r\nNatural as it is to be somewhat incredulous concerning the populousness\r\nof the more enormous creatures of the globe, yet what shall we say to\r\nHarto, the historian of Goa, when he tells us that at one hunting the\r\nKing of Siam took 4,000 elephants; that in those regions elephants are\r\nnumerous as droves of cattle in the temperate climes. And there seems\r\nno reason to doubt that if these elephants, which have now been hunted\r\nfor thousands of years, by Semiramis, by Porus, by Hannibal, and by all\r\nthe successive monarchs of the East—if they still survive there in\r\ngreat numbers, much more may the great whale outlast all hunting, since\r\nhe has a pasture to expatiate in, which is precisely twice as large as\r\nall Asia, both Americas, Europe and Africa, New Holland, and all the\r\nIsles of the sea combined.\r\n\r\nMoreover: we are to consider, that from the presumed great longevity of\r\nwhales, their probably attaining the age of a century and more,\r\ntherefore at any one period of time, several distinct adult generations\r\nmust be contemporary. And what that is, we may soon gain some idea of,\r\nby imagining all the grave-yards, cemeteries, and family vaults of\r\ncreation yielding up the live bodies of all the men, women, and\r\nchildren who were alive seventy-five years ago; and adding this\r\ncountless host to the present human population of the globe.\r\n\r\nWherefore, for all these things, we account the whale immortal in his\r\nspecies, however perishable in his individuality. He swam the seas\r\nbefore the continents broke water; he once swam over the site of the\r\nTuileries, and Windsor Castle, and the Kremlin. In Noah’s flood he\r\ndespised Noah’s Ark; and if ever the world is to be again flooded, like\r\nthe Netherlands, to kill off its rats, then the eternal whale will\r\nstill survive, and rearing upon the topmost crest of the equatorial\r\nflood, spout his frothed defiance to the skies.\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 106. Ahab’s Leg.\r\n\r\nThe precipitating manner in which Captain Ahab had quitted the Samuel\r\nEnderby of London, had not been unattended with some small violence to\r\nhis own person. He had lighted with such energy upon a thwart of his\r\nboat that his ivory leg had received a half-splintering shock. And when\r\nafter gaining his own deck, and his own pivot-hole there, he so\r\nvehemently wheeled round with an urgent command to the steersman (it\r\nwas, as ever, something about his not steering inflexibly enough);\r\nthen, the already shaken ivory received such an additional twist and\r\nwrench, that though it still remained entire, and to all appearances\r\nlusty, yet Ahab did not deem it entirely trustworthy.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AMATKT365D6MYKBMPFY1W","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AP3WXD15AYZKGNMJ7C8TD","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AP3WXFTTE6E099CY9RAWJ","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:32.061Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:55.039Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}