236 



The Chase 



induced by such a vacant sea. For this part of 

 the Indian ocean, through which we were then 

 voyaging, is not what whalemen call a lively ground; 

 that is, it affords fewer glimpses of porpoises, dol- 

 phins, flying-fish, and other vivacious denizens of 

 more stirring waters, than those off the Rio de la 

 Plata, or the inshore ground off Peru. 



It was my turn to stand at the foremast-head ; 

 and with my shoulders leaning against the slackened 

 royal shrouds, to and fro I idly swayed in what 

 seemed an enchanted air. No resolution could 

 withstand it : in that dreamy mood losing all 

 consciousness, at last my soul went out of my body; 

 though my body continued to sway, as a pendulum 

 will, long after the power which first moved it 

 is withdrawn. 



Ere forgetfulness altogether came over me, I had 

 noticed that the seamen at the main and mizzen 

 mast-heads were already drowsy, so that at last 

 all three of us lifelessly swung from the spars, and 

 for every swing that we made there was a nod 

 from below from the slumbering helmsman. The 

 waves, too, nodded their indolent crests ; and across 

 the wide trance of the sea, east nodded to west, 

 and the sun over all. 



Suddenly bubbles seemed bursting beneath my 

 closed eyes ; like vices my hands grasped the 

 shrouds ; some invisible, gracious agency preserved 

 me ; with a shock I came back to life. And lo ! 

 close under our lee, not forty fathoms off, a gigantic 

 Sperm Whale lay rolling in the water like the 

 capsized hull of a frigate, his broad, glossy back, 

 of an Ethiopian hue, glistening in the sun's rays 

 like a mirror. But lazily undulating in the trough 

 of the sea, and ever and anon tranquilly spouting 

 his vapoury jet, the whale looked like a portly 



