THE WHITE WHALE 397 
before the mainmast, then, as the same riveted glance fastened upon 
the riveted gold coin there, he still wore the same aspect of nailed firm- 
ness, only dashed with a certain wild longing, if not hopefulness. 
But one morning, turning to pass the doubloon, he seemed to be newly 
attracted by the strange figures and inscriptions stamped on it, as 
though now for the first time beginning to interpret for himself in 
some monomaniac way whatever significance might lurk in them. And 
some certain significance lurks in all things, else all things are little 
worth, and the round world itself but an empty cipher except to sell by 
the cartload, as they do hills about Boston, to fill up some morass in 
the Milky Way. 
Now this doubloon was of purest, virgin gold, raked somewhere out 
of the heart of gorgeous hills, whence, east and west, over golden 
sands, the head-waters of many a Pactolus flows. And though now 
nailed amidst all the rustiness of iron bolts and the verdigris of copper 
spikes, yet, untouchable and immaculate to any foulness, it still pre- 
served its Quito glow. Nor, though placed amongst a ruthless' crew 
and every hour passed by ruthless hands, and through the lifelong 
nights shrouded with thick darkness which might cover any pilfering 
approach, nevertheless every sunrise found the doubloon where the 
sunset left it last. For it was set apart and sanctified to one awe- 
striking end ; and however wanton in their sailor ways, one and all, 
the mariners revered it as the white whale’s talisman. Sometimes 
they talked it over in the weary watch by night, wondering whose it was 
to be at last, and whether he would ever live to spend it. 
Now those noble golden coins of South America are as medals of the 
sun and tropic token-pieces. Here palms, alpacas, and volcanoes; 
sun’s discs and stars; ecliptics, horns-of-plenty, and rich banners wav- 
ing, are in luxuriant profusion stamped; so that the precious gold 
seems almost to derive an added preciousness and enhancing glories, 
by passing through those fancy mints, so Spanishly poetic. 
It so chanced that the doubloon of the Pequod was a most wealthy 
example of these things. On its round border it bore the letters, 
REPUBLICA DEL ECUADOR: QUITO. So this bright coin 
came from a country planted in the middle of the world, and beneath 
the great equator, and named after it; and it had been cast midway 
