146 NIMROD OF THE SEA; OR, 



squid biggei" than the main-hatch. He bews off the arms, 

 or tentackellums, as Bill calls 'em, more 'n forty foot long. 

 Lord, how he just does go down, boys ! He goes down like 

 a lump of lead, full ten-knots' speed, till he sinks so deep 

 that the squeeze of the water would mash in a mainmast; 

 so deep that water would drive through a cork; and so deep 

 that a thing must have life in it ever to get up ag'in. Why, 

 I heard Captain Swaim say that a whale must often bear a 

 pressure equal to three hundred thousand tons ; but the same 

 I don't believe, of course, for the reason as I told you. No- 

 body comes back to tell what happens when the sperm-whale 

 and squid feed together. I am willin' to believe that the 

 whale gits purty close nippered, for I've seen him shoot out 

 of the sea jist as a water-melon seed slips from the finger 

 and thumb and shoots inter the face of our sweetheart, 

 God bless her ! I jist believe — for tjiere can be no knowing 

 —I just believe that the spermaceti squid is the very big- 

 gest living critter in the universe. There is nothing greater 

 than the squid, exceptin' our ignorance of it. They are both 

 without limit. 



" Why, sirs, you and me have seen the lanced whale 

 snortin' thick blood, and heavin' up in his throat hogsheads 

 of squid. You may see broad flat pieces, of all shapes and 

 sizes, a-floatin' over the feedin'-grounds of whales, and you 

 never see a piece that gives you any idea of the shape or 

 size of the whole fish. You never see a piece as has a sel- 

 vage edge on to it. You never yet see an outside piece. 

 No, they are all chunks, cut ragged and jagged with the 

 teeth of the whales. 



" I jist believe that the bottom of the bottomless sea is 

 only squid ; it lays down there white as daylight, in the dark, 

 deep water ; its great arms are coiled around the foundation- 

 pillars of the island, and its thousand other arms, bigger than 

 ships' masts, are gatherin' up dead whales, and drownded 



