536 
MOBY DICK; OR 
And the phosphor gleamed in the wake of the whale 
As it floundered in the sea.” 
Elizabeth Oakes Smith. 
“The quantity of line withdrawn from the different boats engaged in 
the capture of this one whale, amounted altogether to 10,440 yards or 
nearly six English miles.” . . . 
“Sometimes the whale shakes its tremendous tail in the air, which, 
cracking like a whip, resounds to the distance of three or four miles.” 
Scoresby. 
“Mad with the agonies he endures from these fresh attacks, the in- 
furiated Sperm Whale rolls over and over; he rears his enormous head, 
and with wide expanded jaws snaps at everything around him; he rushes 
at the boats with his head; they are propelled before him with vast swift- 
ness, and sometimes utterly destroyed. 
... It is a matter of great astonishment that the consideration of the 
habits of so interesting, and, in a commercial point of view, of so important 
an animal (as the Sperm Whale) should have been so entirely neglected, or 
should have excited so little curiosity among the numerous, and many of 
them competent observers, that of late years must have possessed the most 
abundant and the most convenient opportunities of witnessing their habi- 
tudes.” Thomas Beale’s History of the Sperm Whale, 1839. 
“The Cachalot” (Sperm Whale) “is not only better armed than the 
True Whale” (Greenland or Right Whale) “in possessing a formidable 
weapon at either extremity of its body, but also more frequently displays a 
disposition to employ these weapons offensively, and in a manner at once 
so artful, bold, and mischievous, as to lead to its being regarded as the 
most dangerous to attack of all the known species of the whale tribe.” 
Frederick Debell Bennett’s Whaling 
Voyage Round the Globe, 1840. 
October 13. — “There she blows,” was sung out from the masthead. 
“Where away?” demanded the captain. 
“Three points off the lee bow, sir.” 
“Raise up your wheel. Steady!” 
“Steady, sir.” 
“•Masthead ahoy! Do you see that whale now?” 
“Ay ay, sir ! A shoal of Sperm Whales ! There she blows ! There she 
breaches !’* 
