WHALE HUNTING 



Hunting the Whale ^^ -^^ ^^^ 



IT was a sight full of quick wonder and awe ! 

 The vast swells of the omnipotent sea ; the 

 surging, hollow roar they made, as they rolled 

 along the eight gunwales, like gigantic bowls in a 

 boundless bowling-green ; the brief suspended agony 

 of the boat, as it would tip for an instant on the 

 knife-like edge of the sharper waves, that almost 

 seemed threatening to cut it in two ; the sudden 

 profound dip into the watery glens and hollows ; 

 the keen spurrings and goadings to gain the top of 

 the opposite hill ; the headlong, sled-like slide down 

 its other side ; — all these, with the cries of the 

 headsman and harpooneers, and the shuddering 

 gasps of the oarsmen, with the wondrous sight of 

 the ivory Pequod bearing down upon her boats with 

 outstretched sails, like a wild hen after her scream- 

 ing brood ; all this was thrilling. Not the raw 

 recruit, marching from the bosom of his wife into 

 the fever heat of his first battle ; not the dead man's 

 ghost encountering the first unknown phantom in 

 the other world ; — neither of these can feel stranger 

 and stronger emotions than that man does, who for 

 the first time finds himself pulling into the charmed, 

 churned circle of the hunted sperm whale. 



The dancing white water made by the chase was 

 now becoming more and more visible, owing to the 

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