{"id":"01KJNXJR0DGXF2WARRXGNAQP4T","cid":"bafkreiexyksuxa4rhwxis2zifxqmh4cgbznegpwxkbqzk2dxiwx2ugzemy","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":626601,"char_start":618742,"chunk_index":87,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":1965,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"brilliance and beauty of many of its most remorseless tribes, as the\r\ndainty embellished shape of many species of sharks. Consider, once\r\nmore, the universal cannibalism of the sea; all whose creatures prey\r\nupon each other, carrying on eternal war since the world began.\r\n\r\nConsider all this; and then turn to this green, gentle, and most docile\r\nearth; consider them both, the sea and the land; and do you not find a\r\nstrange analogy to something in yourself? For as this appalling ocean\r\nsurrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one\r\ninsular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the\r\nhorrors of the half known life. God keep thee! Push not off from that\r\nisle, thou canst never return!\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 59. Squid.\r\n\r\nSlowly wading through the meadows of brit, the Pequod still held on her\r\nway north-eastward towards the island of Java; a gentle air impelling\r\nher keel, so that in the surrounding serenity her three tall tapering\r\nmasts mildly waved to that languid breeze, as three mild palms on a\r\nplain. And still, at wide intervals in the silvery night, the lonely,\r\nalluring jet would be seen.\r\n\r\nBut one transparent blue morning, when a stillness almost preternatural\r\nspread over the sea, however unattended with any stagnant calm; when\r\nthe long burnished sun-glade on the waters seemed a golden finger laid\r\nacross them, enjoining some secrecy; when the slippered waves whispered\r\ntogether as they softly ran on; in this profound hush of the visible\r\nsphere a strange spectre was seen by Daggoo from the main-mast-head.\r\n\r\nIn the distance, a great white mass lazily rose, and rising higher and\r\nhigher, and disentangling itself from the azure, at last gleamed before\r\nour prow like a snow-slide, new slid from the hills. Thus glistening\r\nfor a moment, as slowly it subsided, and sank. Then once more arose,\r\nand silently gleamed. It seemed not a whale; and yet is this Moby Dick?\r\nthought Daggoo. Again the phantom went down, but on re-appearing once\r\nmore, with a stiletto-like cry that startled every man from his nod,\r\nthe negro yelled out—“There! there again! there she breaches! right\r\nahead! The White Whale, the White Whale!”\r\n\r\nUpon this, the seamen rushed to the yard-arms, as in swarming-time the\r\nbees rush to the boughs. Bare-headed in the sultry sun, Ahab stood on\r\nthe bowsprit, and with one hand pushed far behind in readiness to wave\r\nhis orders to the helmsman, cast his eager glance in the direction\r\nindicated aloft by the outstretched motionless arm of Daggoo.\r\n\r\nWhether the flitting attendance of the one still and solitary jet had\r\ngradually worked upon Ahab, so that he was now prepared to connect the\r\nideas of mildness and repose with the first sight of the particular\r\nwhale he pursued; however this was, or whether his eagerness betrayed\r\nhim; whichever way it might have been, no sooner did he distinctly\r\nperceive the white mass, than with a quick intensity he instantly gave\r\norders for lowering.\r\n\r\nThe four boats were soon on the water; Ahab’s in advance, and all\r\nswiftly pulling towards their prey. Soon it went down, and while, with\r\noars suspended, we were awaiting its reappearance, lo! in the same spot\r\nwhere it sank, once more it slowly rose. Almost forgetting for the\r\nmoment all thoughts of Moby Dick, we now gazed at the most wondrous\r\nphenomenon which the secret seas have hitherto revealed to mankind. A\r\nvast pulpy mass, furlongs in length and breadth, of a glancing\r\ncream-colour, lay floating on the water, innumerable long arms\r\nradiating from its centre, and curling and twisting like a nest of\r\nanacondas, as if blindly to clutch at any hapless object within reach.\r\nNo perceptible face or front did it have; no conceivable token of\r\neither sensation or instinct; but undulated there on the billows, an\r\nunearthly, formless, chance-like apparition of life.\r\n\r\nAs with a low sucking sound it slowly disappeared again, Starbuck still\r\ngazing at the agitated waters where it had sunk, with a wild voice\r\nexclaimed—“Almost rather had I seen Moby Dick and fought him, than to\r\nhave seen thee, thou white ghost!”\r\n\r\n“What was it, Sir?” said Flask.\r\n\r\n“The great live squid, which, they say, few whale-ships ever beheld,\r\nand returned to their ports to tell of it.”\r\n\r\nBut Ahab said nothing; turning his boat, he sailed back to the vessel;\r\nthe rest as silently following.\r\n\r\nWhatever superstitions the sperm whalemen in general have connected\r\nwith the sight of this object, certain it is, that a glimpse of it\r\nbeing so very unusual, that circumstance has gone far to invest it with\r\nportentousness. So rarely is it beheld, that though one and all of them\r\ndeclare it to be the largest animated thing in the ocean, yet very few\r\nof them have any but the most vague ideas concerning its true nature\r\nand form; notwithstanding, they believe it to furnish to the sperm\r\nwhale his only food. For though other species of whales find their food\r\nabove water, and may be seen by man in the act of feeding, the\r\nspermaceti whale obtains his whole food in unknown zones below the\r\nsurface; and only by inference is it that any one can tell of what,\r\nprecisely, that food consists. At times, when closely pursued, he will\r\ndisgorge what are supposed to be the detached arms of the squid; some\r\nof them thus exhibited exceeding twenty and thirty feet in length. They\r\nfancy that the monster to which these arms belonged ordinarily clings\r\nby them to the bed of the ocean; and that the sperm whale, unlike other\r\nspecies, is supplied with teeth in order to attack and tear it.\r\n\r\nThere seems some ground to imagine that the great Kraken of Bishop\r\nPontoppodan may ultimately resolve itself into Squid. The manner in\r\nwhich the Bishop describes it, as alternately rising and sinking, with\r\nsome other particulars he narrates, in all this the two correspond. But\r\nmuch abatement is necessary with respect to the incredible bulk he\r\nassigns it.\r\n\r\nBy some naturalists who have vaguely heard rumors of the mysterious\r\ncreature, here spoken of, it is included among the class of\r\ncuttle-fish, to which, indeed, in certain external respects it would\r\nseem to belong, but only as the Anak of the tribe.\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER 60. The Line.\r\n\r\nWith reference to the whaling scene shortly to be described, as well as\r\nfor the better understanding of all similar scenes elsewhere presented,\r\nI have here to speak of the magical, sometimes horrible whale-line.\r\n\r\nThe line originally used in the fishery was of the best hemp, slightly\r\nvapored with tar, not impregnated with it, as in the case of ordinary\r\nropes; for while tar, as ordinarily used, makes the hemp more pliable\r\nto the rope-maker, and also renders the rope itself more convenient to\r\nthe sailor for common ship use; yet, not only would the ordinary\r\nquantity too much stiffen the whale-line for the close coiling to which\r\nit must be subjected; but as most seamen are beginning to learn, tar in\r\ngeneral by no means adds to the rope’s durability or strength, however\r\nmuch it may give it compactness and gloss.\r\n\r\nOf late years the Manilla rope has in the American fishery almost\r\nentirely superseded hemp as a material for whale-lines; for, though not\r\nso durable as hemp, it is stronger, and far more soft and elastic; and\r\nI will add (since there is an æsthetics in all things), is much more\r\nhandsome and becoming to the boat, than hemp. Hemp is a dusky, dark\r\nfellow, a sort of Indian; but Manilla is as a golden-haired Circassian\r\nto behold.\r\n\r\nThe whale-line is only two-thirds of an inch in thickness. At first\r\nsight, you would not think it so strong as it really is. By experiment\r\nits one and fifty yarns will each suspend a weight of one hundred and\r\ntwenty pounds; so that the whole rope will bear a strain nearly equal\r\nto three tons. In length, the common sperm whale-line measures\r\nsomething over two hundred fathoms."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJNXEDHZCC8DR4EPSQD0QP4P","peer_label":"moby-dick","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJNXECF9R1EZKS5Z7J8A8ZSB","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KJNXKW3Z6GAC3QZ1MZC1PX63","peer_label":"pequod","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whaling_ship","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:15.460Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM529XJRPQXV0DC58V32N","peer_label":"moby 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