352 
MOBY DICK; OR 
She has a whole lake’s contents bottled in her ample hold. She is 
ballasted with utilities ; not altogether with unusable pig-lead and kent- 
edge. She carries years’ water in her. Clear old prime Nantucket 
water; which, when three years afloat, the Nantucketer, in the Pacific, 
prefers to drink before the brackish fluid, but yesterday rafted off in 
casks, from the Peruvian or Indian streams. Hence it is, that, while 
other ships may have gone to China from New York, and back again, 
touching at a score of ports, the whale ship, in all that interval, may 
not have sighted one grain? of soil; her crew having seen no man but 
floating seamen like themselves; so that did you carry them the news 
that another flood had come, they would only answer — “Well, boys, 
here’s the ark!” 
Now, as many Sperm Whales had been captured on the western 
coast of Java, in the near vicinity of the Straits of Sunda; indeed, as 
most of the ground, round about, was generally recognised by the fisher- 
men as an excellent spot for cruising; therefore, as the Pequod gained 
more and more upon Java Head, the lookouts were repeatedly hailed, 
and admonished to keep wide awake. But though the green, palmy 
cliffs of the land so loomed on the starboard bow, and with delighted 
nostrils the fresh cinnamon was snuffed in the air, yet not a single jet 
was descried. Almost renouncing all thought of falling in with any 
game hereabouts, the ship had well-nigh entered the straits, when the 
customary cheering cry was heard from aloft, and ere long a spectacle 
of singular magnificence saluted us. 
But here be it premised, that owing to the unwearied activity with 
which of late they have been hunted over all four oceans, the Sperm 
Whales, instead of almost invariably sailing in small detached com- 
panies, as in former times, are now frequently met with in extensive 
herds, sometimes embracing so great a multitude, that it would almost 
seem as if numerous nations of them had sworn solemn league and 
covenant for mutual assistance and protection. To this aggregation 
of the Sperm Whale into such immense caravans, may be imputed the 
circumstance that even in the best cruising-grounds, you may now 
sometimes sail for weeks and months together, without being greeted 
by a single spout; and then be suddenly saluted by what sometimes 
seems thousands on thousands. 
