{"id":"01KJNXJV7AW3FECQZC38SW5N97","cid":"bafkreidwqidgg22gllav2l6ue5r4arx5w72a56ahbrchjqo3udlsuha6lu","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":859644,"char_start":851768,"chunk_index":120,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":1969,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"\r\nThough many of the whales, as has been said, were in violent motion,\r\nyet it is to be observed that as a whole the herd neither advanced nor\r\nretreated, but collectively remained in one place. As is customary in\r\nthose cases, the boats at once separated, each making for some one lone\r\nwhale on the outskirts of the shoal. In about three minutes’ time,\r\nQueequeg’s harpoon was flung; the stricken fish darted blinding spray\r\nin our faces, and then running away with us like light, steered\r\nstraight for the heart of the herd. Though such a movement on the part\r\nof the whale struck under such circumstances, is in no wise\r\nunprecedented; and indeed is almost always more or less anticipated;\r\nyet does it present one of the more perilous vicissitudes of the\r\nfishery. For as the swift monster drags you deeper and deeper into the\r\nfrantic shoal, you bid adieu to circumspect life and only exist in a\r\ndelirious throb.\r\n\r\nAs, blind and deaf, the whale plunged forward, as if by sheer power of\r\nspeed to rid himself of the iron leech that had fastened to him; as we\r\nthus tore a white gash in the sea, on all sides menaced as we flew, by\r\nthe crazed creatures to and fro rushing about us; our beset boat was\r\nlike a ship mobbed by ice-isles in a tempest, and striving to steer\r\nthrough their complicated channels and straits, knowing not at what\r\nmoment it may be locked in and crushed.\r\n\r\nBut not a bit daunted, Queequeg steered us manfully; now sheering off\r\nfrom this monster directly across our route in advance; now edging away\r\nfrom that, whose colossal flukes were suspended overhead, while all the\r\ntime, Starbuck stood up in the bows, lance in hand, pricking out of our\r\nway whatever whales he could reach by short darts, for there was no\r\ntime to make long ones. Nor were the oarsmen quite idle, though their\r\nwonted duty was now altogether dispensed with. They chiefly attended to\r\nthe shouting part of the business. “Out of the way, Commodore!” cried\r\none, to a great dromedary that of a sudden rose bodily to the surface,\r\nand for an instant threatened to swamp us. “Hard down with your tail,\r\nthere!” cried a second to another, which, close to our gunwale, seemed\r\ncalmly cooling himself with his own fan-like extremity.\r\n\r\nAll whaleboats carry certain curious contrivances, originally invented\r\nby the Nantucket Indians, called druggs. Two thick squares of wood of\r\nequal size are stoutly clenched together, so that they cross each\r\nother’s grain at right angles; a line of considerable length is then\r\nattached to the middle of this block, and the other end of the line\r\nbeing looped, it can in a moment be fastened to a harpoon. It is\r\nchiefly among gallied whales that this drugg is used. For then, more\r\nwhales are close round you than you can possibly chase at one time. But\r\nsperm whales are not every day encountered; while you may, then, you\r\nmust kill all you can. And if you cannot kill them all at once, you\r\nmust wing them, so that they can be afterwards killed at your leisure.\r\nHence it is, that at times like these the drugg, comes into\r\nrequisition. Our boat was furnished with three of them. The first and\r\nsecond were successfully darted, and we saw the whales staggeringly\r\nrunning off, fettered by the enormous sidelong resistance of the towing\r\ndrugg. They were cramped like malefactors with the chain and ball. But\r\nupon flinging the third, in the act of tossing overboard the clumsy\r\nwooden block, it caught under one of the seats of the boat, and in an\r\ninstant tore it out and carried it away, dropping the oarsman in the\r\nboat’s bottom as the seat slid from under him. On both sides the sea\r\ncame in at the wounded planks, but we stuffed two or three drawers and\r\nshirts in, and so stopped the leaks for the time.\r\n\r\nIt had been next to impossible to dart these drugged-harpoons, were it\r\nnot that as we advanced into the herd, our whale’s way greatly\r\ndiminished; moreover, that as we went still further and further from\r\nthe circumference of commotion, the direful disorders seemed waning. So\r\nthat when at last the jerking harpoon drew out, and the towing whale\r\nsideways vanished; then, with the tapering force of his parting\r\nmomentum, we glided between two whales into the innermost heart of the\r\nshoal, as if from some mountain torrent we had slid into a serene\r\nvalley lake. Here the storms in the roaring glens between the outermost\r\nwhales, were heard but not felt. In this central expanse the sea\r\npresented that smooth satin-like surface, called a sleek, produced by\r\nthe subtle moisture thrown off by the whale in his more quiet moods.\r\nYes, we were now in that enchanted calm which they say lurks at the\r\nheart of every commotion. And still in the distracted distance we\r\nbeheld the tumults of the outer concentric circles, and saw successive\r\npods of whales, eight or ten in each, swiftly going round and round,\r\nlike multiplied spans of horses in a ring; and so closely shoulder to\r\nshoulder, that a Titanic circus-rider might easily have over-arched the\r\nmiddle ones, and so have gone round on their backs. Owing to the\r\ndensity of the crowd of reposing whales, more immediately surrounding\r\nthe embayed axis of the herd, no possible chance of escape was at\r\npresent afforded us. We must watch for a breach in the living wall that\r\nhemmed us in; the wall that had only admitted us in order to shut us\r\nup. Keeping at the centre of the lake, we were occasionally visited by\r\nsmall tame cows and calves; the women and children of this routed host.\r\n\r\nNow, inclusive of the occasional wide intervals between the revolving\r\nouter circles, and inclusive of the spaces between the various pods in\r\nany one of those circles, the entire area at this juncture, embraced by\r\nthe whole multitude, must have contained at least two or three square\r\nmiles. At any rate—though indeed such a test at such a time might be\r\ndeceptive—spoutings might be discovered from our low boat that seemed\r\nplaying up almost from the rim of the horizon. I mention this\r\ncircumstance, because, as if the cows and calves had been purposely\r\nlocked up in this innermost fold; and as if the wide extent of the herd\r\nhad hitherto prevented them from learning the precise cause of its\r\nstopping; or, possibly, being so young, unsophisticated, and every way\r\ninnocent and inexperienced; however it may have been, these smaller\r\nwhales—now and then visiting our becalmed boat from the margin of the\r\nlake—evinced a wondrous fearlessness and confidence, or else a still\r\nbecharmed panic which it was impossible not to marvel at. Like\r\nhousehold dogs they came snuffling round us, right up to our gunwales,\r\nand touching them; till it almost seemed that some spell had suddenly\r\ndomesticated them. Queequeg patted their foreheads; Starbuck scratched\r\ntheir backs with his lance; but fearful of the consequences, for the\r\ntime refrained from darting it.\r\n\r\nBut far beneath this wondrous world upon the surface, another and still\r\nstranger world met our eyes as we gazed over the side. For, suspended\r\nin those watery vaults, floated the forms of the nursing mothers of the\r\nwhales, and those that by their enormous girth seemed shortly to become\r\nmothers. The lake, as I have hinted, was to a considerable depth\r\nexceedingly transparent; and as human infants while suckling will\r\ncalmly and fixedly gaze away from the breast, as if leading two\r\ndifferent lives at the time; and while yet drawing mortal nourishment,\r\nbe still spiritually feasting upon some unearthly reminiscence;—even so\r\ndid the young of these whales seem looking up towards us, but not at\r\nus, as if we were but a bit of Gulfweed in their new-born sight.\r\nFloating on their sides, the mothers also seemed quietly eyeing us. One\r\nof these little infants, that from certain queer tokens seemed hardly a\r\nday old, might have measured some fourteen feet in length, and some six\r\nfeet in girth."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJNXEDHZCC8DR4EPSQD0QP4P","peer_label":"moby-dick","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJNXECF9R1EZKS5Z7J8A8ZSB","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KJNXKXH2GMRN3K01DR56AKFQ","peer_label":"harpoon","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"weapon","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:21.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXM6CV5BE5PG01N0MSHZ9Z","peer_label":"lance","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"weapon","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:21.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKXNA6Q7NV244AJQKVXKZ","peer_label":"queequeg","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:21.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXKVYKWFDKYWNFAY5N9KE5","peer_label":"starbuck","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"person","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:21.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMETZY33Y5RA0RRSVBKDX","peer_label":"whaleboat","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"vessel","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:21.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMSYRFQ0Q61T28V3SXPQ3","peer_label":"nantucket indians","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"ethnic_group","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:21.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMTFDDS58SP46W6T2GYQ9","peer_label":"stricken whale","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whale","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:21.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMT9XF8E1DA7896NT16P8","peer_label":"druggs","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whaling_equipment","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:21.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMW0B48YXK7N3PTBV028F","peer_label":"outer concentric circles whale herd","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"animal_grouping_structure","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:21.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMTEE4QZES8E8SZ6ZRGYV","peer_label":"gallied whales","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whale_state","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:21.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMW0CB5KNZNW4KHDX6X4B","peer_label":"sleek","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"oceanographic_phenomenon","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:21.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMV4XAPSM676KK68MG5NE","peer_label":"sperm whales","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whale_species","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:21.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMX01G8X2PNGVCW563GB7","peer_label":"nursing mothers of whales","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whale_subgroup","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:21.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMXFBK36B4W39NPANGYHY","peer_label":"wounded planks","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"damage","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:21.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXN8RX8FTTGY0N6N6YQQFD","peer_label":"whale infants","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whale_subgroup","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:21.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMDREWM380Q0598MQMQJT","peer_label":"fishery whaling","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"activity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:21.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMCXXN2J2HTYEB21M3SKX","peer_label":"whale herd","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"animal_grouping","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:21.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXN8PS3J9XPVZ7KA5TPECM","peer_label":"perilous vicissitudes","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:21.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNFB2D8WC1H942S5DCT8H","peer_label":"watery vaults","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:21.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNFT1G6ZD0W285BKSWDGG","peer_label":"whales way","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:21.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXNH9XT4GBPWMQZFJ8VG80","peer_label":"whales","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:21.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMW6DYBJ4ZTFW2PDQ3T11","peer_label":"pods of whales","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"animal_grouping","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:21.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXMWTFTFZ8C3VG905KTX27","peer_label":"small tame cows and calves","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"whale_subgroup","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:21.418Z"}},{"peer":"01KJNXN93YVX4EDAQVAJSHY5GC","peer_label":"sea water","predicate":"extracted_entity","properties":{"entity_type":"entity","extracted_at":"2026-03-02T00:08:21.418Z"}}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:19.082Z","ts":"2026-03-02T00:08:24.238Z","edited_by":{"method":"system","user_id":"01KJ60XQBHJ0GBGTP9X8HXAPPM"}}