{"id":"01KJNXJV7FM8R0AJKTD5A63GME","cid":"bafkreibpkwwlpacood5rfsgtvyb5wmdkv2e4bgri6ww7jmyltvpsgvf4ni","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":866548,"char_start":858859,"chunk_index":121,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":1923,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"whales, 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. He was a little frisky; though as yet his body seemed\r\nscarce yet recovered from that irksome position it had so lately\r\noccupied in the maternal reticule; where, tail to head, and all ready\r\nfor the final spring, the unborn whale lies bent like a Tartar’s bow.\r\nThe delicate side-fins, and the palms of his flukes, still freshly\r\nretained the plaited crumpled appearance of a baby’s ears newly arrived\r\nfrom foreign parts.\r\n\r\n“Line! line!” cried Queequeg, looking over the gunwale; “him fast! him\r\nfast!—Who line him! Who struck?—Two whale; one big, one little!”\r\n\r\n“What ails ye, man?” cried Starbuck.\r\n\r\n“Look-e here,” said Queequeg, pointing down.\r\n\r\nAs when the stricken whale, that from the tub has reeled out hundreds\r\nof fathoms of rope; as, after deep sounding, he floats up again, and\r\nshows the slackened curling line buoyantly rising and spiralling\r\ntowards the air; so now, Starbuck saw long coils of the umbilical cord\r\nof Madame Leviathan, by which the young cub seemed still tethered to\r\nits dam. Not seldom in the rapid vicissitudes of the chase, this\r\nnatural line, with the maternal end loose, becomes entangled with the\r\nhempen one, so that the cub is thereby trapped. Some of the subtlest\r\nsecrets of the seas seemed divulged to us in this enchanted pond. We\r\nsaw young Leviathan amours in the deep.*\r\n\r\n*The sperm whale, as with all other species of the Leviathan, but\r\nunlike most other fish, breeds indifferently at all seasons; after a\r\ngestation which may probably be set down at nine months, producing but\r\none at a time; though in some few known instances giving birth to an\r\nEsau and Jacob:—a contingency provided for in suckling by two teats,\r\ncuriously situated, one on each side of the anus; but the breasts\r\nthemselves extend upwards from that. When by chance these precious\r\nparts in a nursing whale are cut by the hunter’s lance, the mother’s\r\npouring milk and blood rivallingly discolour the sea for rods. The milk\r\nis very sweet and rich; it has been tasted by man; it might do well\r\nwith strawberries. When overflowing with mutual esteem, the whales\r\nsalute _more hominum_.\r\n\r\nAnd thus, though surrounded by circle upon circle of consternations and\r\naffrights, did these inscrutable creatures at the centre freely and\r\nfearlessly indulge in all peaceful concernments; yea, serenely revelled\r\nin dalliance and delight. But even so, amid the tornadoed Atlantic of\r\nmy being, do I myself still for ever centrally disport in mute calm;\r\nand while ponderous planets of unwaning woe revolve round me, deep down\r\nand deep inland there I still bathe me in eternal mildness of joy.\r\n\r\nMeanwhile, as we thus lay entranced, the occasional sudden frantic\r\nspectacles in the distance evinced the activity of the other boats,\r\nstill engaged in drugging the whales on the frontier of the host; or\r\npossibly carrying on the war within the first circle, where abundance\r\nof room and some convenient retreats were afforded them. But the sight\r\nof the enraged drugged whales now and then blindly darting to and fro\r\nacross the circles, was nothing to what at last met our eyes. It is\r\nsometimes the custom when fast to a whale more than commonly powerful\r\nand alert, to seek to hamstring him, as it were, by sundering or\r\nmaiming his gigantic tail-tendon. It is done by darting a short-handled\r\ncutting-spade, to which is attached a rope for hauling it back again. A\r\nwhale wounded (as we afterwards learned) in this part, but not\r\neffectually, as it seemed, had broken away from the boat, carrying\r\nalong with him half of the harpoon line; and in the extraordinary agony\r\nof the wound, he was now dashing among the revolving circles like the\r\nlone mounted desperado Arnold, at the battle of Saratoga, carrying\r\ndismay wherever he went.\r\n\r\nBut agonizing as was the wound of this whale, and an appalling\r\nspectacle enough, any way; yet the peculiar horror with which he seemed\r\nto inspire the rest of the herd, was owing to a cause which at first\r\nthe intervening distance obscured from us. But at length we perceived\r\nthat by one of the unimaginable accidents of the fishery, this whale\r\nhad become entangled in the harpoon-line that he towed; he had also run\r\naway with the cutting-spade in him; and while the free end of the rope\r\nattached to that weapon, had permanently caught in the coils of the\r\nharpoon-line round his tail, the cutting-spade itself had worked loose\r\nfrom his flesh. So that tormented to madness, he was now churning\r\nthrough the water, violently flailing with his flexible tail, and\r\ntossing the keen spade about him, wounding and murdering his own\r\ncomrades.\r\n\r\nThis terrific object seemed to recall the whole herd from their\r\nstationary fright. First, the whales forming the margin of our lake\r\nbegan to crowd a little, and tumble against each other, as if lifted by\r\nhalf spent billows from afar; then the lake itself began faintly to\r\nheave and swell; the submarine bridal-chambers and nurseries vanished;\r\nin more and more contracting orbits the whales in the more central\r\ncircles began to swim in thickening clusters. Yes, the long calm was\r\ndeparting. A low advancing hum was soon heard; and then like to the\r\ntumultuous masses of block-ice when the great river Hudson breaks up in\r\nSpring, the entire host of whales came tumbling upon their inner\r\ncentre, as if to pile themselves up in one common mountain. Instantly\r\nStarbuck and Queequeg changed places; Starbuck taking the stern.\r\n\r\n“Oars! Oars!” he intensely whispered, seizing the helm—“gripe your\r\noars, and clutch your souls, now! My God, men, stand by! Shove him off,\r\nyou Queequeg—the whale there!—prick him!—hit him! Stand up—stand up,\r\nand stay so! Spring, men—pull, men; never mind their backs—scrape\r\nthem!—scrape away!”\r\n\r\nThe boat was now all but jammed between two vast black bulks, leaving a\r\nnarrow Dardanelles between their long lengths. But by desperate\r\nendeavor we at last shot into a temporary opening; then giving way\r\nrapidly, and at the same time earnestly watching for another outlet.\r\nAfter many similar hair-breadth escapes, we at last swiftly glided into\r\nwhat had just been one of the outer circles, but now crossed by random\r\nwhales, all violently making for one centre. This lucky salvation was\r\ncheaply purchased by the loss of Queequeg’s hat, who, while standing in\r\nthe bows to prick the fugitive whales, had his hat taken clean from his\r\nhead by the air-eddy made by the sudden tossing of a pair of broad\r\nflukes close by.\r\n\r\nRiotous and disordered as the universal commotion now was, it soon\r\nresolved itself into what seemed a systematic movement; for having\r\nclumped together at last in one dense body, they then renewed their\r\nonward flight with augmented fleetness. Further pursuit was useless;\r\nbut the boats still lingered in their wake to pick up what drugged\r\nwhales might be dropped astern, and likewise to secure one which Flask\r\nhad killed and waifed."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJNXEDHZCC8DR4EPSQD0QP4P","peer_label":"moby-dick","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJNXECF9R1EZKS5Z7J8A8ZSB","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"}],"ver":1,"created_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:19.087Z","ts":"2026-03-02T00:01:19.087Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KJ6WPT018SDDANE6N7Q8E428"}}