360 
MOBY DICK; OR 
revelled in dalliance and delight. But even so, amid the tornadoed 
Atlantic of my being, do I -myself still for ever centrally disport in mute 
calm; and while ponderous planets of unwaning woe revolve round 
me, deep down and deep inland there I still bathe me in eternal mild- 
ness of joy. 
Meanwhile, as we thus lay entranced, the occasional sudden frantic 
spectacles in the distance evinced the activity of the other boats, still 
engaged in drugging the whales on the frontier of the host ; or possibly 
carrying on the war* within the first circle, where 'abundance of room 
and some convenient retreats were afforded them. But the sight of 
the enraged drugged whales now and then blindly darting to and fro 
across the circles, was nothing to what at last met our eyes. It is 
sometimes the custom when fast to a whale more than commonly pow- 
erful and alert, to seek to hamstring him, as it were, by sundering or 
maiming his gigantic tail-tendon. It is done by darting a short- 
handled cutting-spade, to which is attached a rope for hauling it back 
again. A wounded whale (as we afterwards learned) in this part, 
but not effectually, as it seemed, had broken away from the boat, carry- 
ing along with him half of the harpoon line ; and in the extraordinary 
agony of the wound, he was now dashing among the revolving circles 
like the lone mounted desperado Arnold, at the battle of Saratoga, 
carrying dismay wherever he went. 
But agonising as was the wound of this whale, and an appalling 
spectacle enough, any way; yet the peculiar horror with which he 
seemed to inspire the rest of the herd, was owing to a cause which at 
first the intervening distance obscured from us. But at length we 
perceived that by one of the unimaginable accidents of the fishery, this 
whale had become entangled in the harpoon-line that he towed; he 
had also run away with the cutting-spade in him; and while the free 
end of the rope attached to that weapon had permanently caught 
the coils of the harpoon-line round his tail, the cutting-spade it- 
self had worked loose from his flesh. So that tormented to madness, 
he was now churning through the water, violently flailing with his 
flexible tail, and tossing the keen spade about him, wounding and 
murdering his own comrades. 
This terrific object seemed to recall the whole herd from their 
stationary fright. First, the whales forming the margin of our lake 
