{"id":"01KJNXJV8Q14RG50SXMX9NZ7XK","cid":"bafkreiho2nieg6yn334y2blkflwaypt5t22ixmxdzwnqtdbose5kk7khay","type":"text_chunk","properties":{"char_end":1021695,"char_start":1013860,"chunk_index":143,"chunk_total":178,"estimated_tokens":1959,"source_file_key":"moby-dick","text":"caravans, so that to a large degree the scattered solitaries, yokes,\r\nand pods, and schools of other days are now aggregated into vast but\r\nwidely separated, unfrequent armies. That is all. And equally\r\nfallacious seems the conceit, that because the so-called whale-bone\r\nwhales no longer haunt many grounds in former years abounding with\r\nthem, hence that species also is declining. For they are only being\r\ndriven from promontory to cape; and if one coast is no longer enlivened\r\nwith their jets, then, be sure, some other and remoter strand has been\r\nvery recently startled by the unfamiliar spectacle.\r\n\r\nFurthermore: concerning these last mentioned Leviathans, they have two\r\nfirm fortresses, which, in all human probability, will for ever remain\r\nimpregnable. 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\nAnd, indeed, it seemed small matter for wonder, that for all his\r\npervading, mad recklessness, Ahab did at times give careful heed to the\r\ncondition of that dead bone upon which he partly stood. For it had not\r\nbeen very long prior to the Pequod’s sailing from Nantucket, that he\r\nhad been found one night lying prone upon the ground, and insensible;\r\nby some unknown, and seemingly inexplicable, unimaginable casualty, his\r\nivory limb having been so violently displaced, that it had stake-wise\r\nsmitten, and all but pierced his groin; nor was it without extreme\r\ndifficulty that the agonizing wound was entirely cured.\r\n\r\nNor, at the time, had it failed to enter his monomaniac mind, that all\r\nthe anguish of that then present suffering was but the direct issue of\r\na former woe; and he too plainly seemed to see, that as the most\r\npoisonous reptile of the marsh perpetuates his kind as inevitably as\r\nthe sweetest songster of the grove; so, equally with every felicity,\r\nall miserable events do naturally beget their like. Yea, more than\r\nequally, thought Ahab; since both the ancestry and posterity of Grief\r\ngo further than the ancestry and posterity of Joy. For, not to hint of\r\nthis: that it is an inference from certain canonic teachings, that\r\nwhile some natural enjoyments here shall have no children born to them\r\nfor the other world, but, on the contrary, shall be followed by the\r\njoy-childlessness of all hell’s despair; whereas, some guilty mortal\r\nmiseries shall still fertilely beget to themselves an eternally\r\nprogressive progeny of griefs beyond the grave; not at all to hint of\r\nthis, there still seems an inequality in the deeper analysis of the\r\nthing. For, thought Ahab, while even the highest earthly felicities\r\never have a certain unsignifying pettiness lurking in them, but, at\r\nbottom, all heartwoes, a mystic significance, and, in some men, an\r\narchangelic grandeur; so do their diligent tracings-out not belie the\r\nobvious deduction. To trail the genealogies of these high mortal\r\nmiseries, carries us at last among the sourceless primogenitures of the\r\ngods; so that, in the face of all the glad, hay-making suns, and soft\r\ncymballing, round harvest-moons, we must needs give in to this: that\r\nthe gods themselves are not for ever glad. The ineffaceable, sad\r\nbirth-mark in the brow of man, is but the stamp of sorrow in the\r\nsigners.\r\n\r\nUnwittingly here a secret has been divulged, which perhaps might more\r\nproperly, in set way, have been disclosed before. With many other\r\nparticulars concerning Ahab, always had it remained a mystery to some,\r\nwhy it was, that for a certain period, both before and after the\r\nsailing of the Pequod, he had hidden himself away with such\r\nGrand-Lama-like exclusiveness; and, for that one interval, sought\r\nspeechless refuge, as it were, among the marble senate of the dead.\r\nCaptain Peleg’s bruited reason for this thing appeared by no means\r\nadequate; though, indeed, as touching all Ahab’s deeper part, every\r\nrevelation partook more of significant darkness than of explanatory\r\nlight. But, in the end, it all came out; this one matter did, at least.\r\nThat direful mishap was at the bottom of his temporary recluseness. And\r\nnot only this, but to that ever-contracting, dropping circle ashore,\r\nwho, for any reason, possessed the privilege of a less banned approach\r\nto him; to that timid circle the above hinted casualty—remaining, as it\r\ndid, moodily unaccounted for by Ahab—invested itself with terrors, not\r\nentirely underived from the land of spirits and of wails."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KJNXEDHZCC8DR4EPSQD0QP4P","peer_label":"moby-dick","peer_type":"text","predicate":"derived_from"},{"peer":"01KJNXECF9R1EZKS5Z7J8A8ZSB","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"}],"ver":1,"created_at":"2026-03-02T00:01:19.127Z","ts":"2026-03-02T00:01:19.127Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KJ6WPT018SDDANE6N7Q8E428"}}