350 
MOBY DICK; OR 
The more I consider this mighty tail, the more do I deplore my 
inability to express it. At times there are gestures in it,,- which, though 
they would well grace the hand of man, remain wholly inexplicable. 
In an extensive herd, so remarkable, occasionally, are these mystic 
gestures, that I have heard hunters who have declared them akin to 
Freemason signs and symbols ; that the whale, indeed, by these methods 
intelligently conversed with the world. Nor are there wanting other 
motions of the whale in his general body, full of strangeness, and 
unaccountable to his most experienced assailant. Dissect him how 
I may, then, I go but skin deep; I know him not, and never shall. 
But if I know not even the tail of this whale, how understand his 
head ? much more, how comprehend his face, when he has none ? 
CHAPTER LXXXVI 
THE GRAND ARMADA 
The long and narrow peninsula of Malacca, extending south-eastward 
from the territories of Burmah, forms the most southerly point of all 
Asia. In a continuous line from that peninsula stretch the long islands 
of Sumatra, Java, Bally, and Timor; which, with many others, forms 
a vast mole, or rampart, lengthwise connecting Asia with Australia, 
and dividing the long unbroken Indian Ocean from the thickly 
studded Oriental archipelagoes. This rampart is pierced by several 
sally-ports for the convenience of ships and whales ; conspicuous among 
which are the straits of Sunda and Malacca. By the Straits of Sunda, 
chiefly, vessels bound to China from the West, emerge into the China 
seas. 
Those narrow Straits of Sunda divide Sumatra from Java ; and stand- 
ing midway in that vast rampart of islands, buttressed by that bold 
green promontory, known to seamen as Java Head; they not a little 
correspond to the central gateway opening into some vast walled em- 
pire ; and considering the inexhaustible wealth of spices, and silks, and 
jewels, and gold, and ivory, with which the thousand islands of that 
Oriental sea are enriched, it seems significant provision of nature, that 
such treasures, by the very formation of the land, should at least 
