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1It had been next to impossible to dart these drugged-harpoons, were it not that as we advanced into the herd, our
2whale's way greatly diminished; moreover, that as we went still further and further from the circumference of commotion,
3the direful disorders seemed waning. So that when at last the jerking harpoon drew out, and the towing whale sideways
4vanished; then, with the tapering force of his parting momentum, we glided between two whales into the innermost heart
5of the shoal, as if from some mountain torrent we had slid into a serene valley lake. Here the storms in the roaring
6glens between the outermost whales, were heard but not felt. In this central expanse the sea presented that smooth
7satin-like surface, called a sleek, produced by the subtle moisture thrown off by the whale in his more quiet moods.
8Yes, we were now in that enchanted calm which they say lurks at the heart of every commotion. And still in the
9distracted distance we beheld the tumults of the outer concentric circles, and saw successive pods of whales, eight or
10ten in each, swiftly going round and round, like multiplied spans of horses in a ring; and so closely shoulder to
11shoulder, that a Titanic circus-rider might easily have over-arched the middle ones, and so have gone round on their
12backs. Owing to the density of the crowd of reposing whales, more immediately surrounding the embayed axis of the herd,
13no possible chance of escape was at present afforded us. We must watch for a breach in the living wall that hemmed us
14in; the wall that had only admitted us in order to shut us up. Keeping at the centre of the lake, we were occasionally
15visited by small tame cows and calves; the women and children of this routed host. Now, inclusive of the occasional wide
16intervals between the revolving outer circles, and inclusive of the spaces between the various pods in any one of those
17circles, the entire area at this juncture, embraced by the whole multitude, must have contained at least two or three
18square miles. At any rate--though indeed such a test at such a time might be deceptive--spoutings might be discovered
19from our low boat that seemed playing up almost from the rim of the horizon. I mention this circumstance, because, as if
20the cows and calves had been purposely locked up in this innermost fold; and as if the wide extent of the herd had
21hitherto prevented them from learning the precise cause of its stopping; or, possibly, being so young, unsophisticated,
22and every way innocent and inexperienced; however it may have been, these smaller whales--now and then visiting our
23becalmed boat from the margin of the lake--evinced a wondrous fearlessness and confidence, or else a still becharmed
24panic which it was impossible not to marvel at. Like household dogs they came snuffling round us, right up to our
25gunwales, and touching them; till it almost seemed that some spell had suddenly domesticated them. Queequeg patted their
26foreheads; Starbuck scratched their backs with his lance; but fearful of the consequences, for the time refrained from
27darting it. But far beneath this wondrous world upon the surface, another and still stranger world met our eyes as we
28gazed over the side. For, suspended in those watery vaults, floated the forms of the nursing mothers of the whales, and
29those that by their enormous girth seemed shortly to become mothers. The lake, as I have hinted, was to a considerable
30depth exceedingly transparent; and as human infants while suckling will calmly and fixedly gaze away from the breast, as
31if leading two different lives at the time; and while yet drawing mortal nourishment, be still spiritually feasting upon
32some unearthly reminiscence;--even so did the young of these whales seem looking up towards us, but not at us, as if we
33were but a bit of Gulfweed in their new-born sight. Floating on their sides, the mothers also seemed quietly eyeing us.
34One of these little infants, that from certain queer tokens seemed hardly a day old, might have measured some fourteen
35feet in length, and some six feet in girth. He was a little frisky; though as yet his body seemed scarce yet recovered
36from that irksome position it had so lately occupied in the maternal reticule; where, tail to head, and all ready for
37the final spring, the unborn whale lies bent like a Tartar's bow. The delicate side-fins, and the palms of his flukes,
38still freshly retained the plaited crumpled appearance of a baby's ears newly arrived from foreign parts. "Line! line!"
39cried Queequeg, looking over the gunwale; "him fast! him fast!--Who line him! Who struck?--Two whale; one big, one
40little!" "What ails ye, man?" cried Starbuck. "Look-e here," said Queequeg, pointing down. As when the stricken whale,
41that from the tub has reeled out hundreds of fathoms of rope; as, after deep sounding, he floats up again, and shows the
42slackened curling line buoyantly rising and spiralling towards the air; so now, Starbuck saw long coils of the umbilical
43cord of Madame Leviathan, by which the young cub seemed still tethered to its dam. Not seldom in the rapid vicissitudes
44of the chase, this natural line, with the maternal end loose, becomes entangled with the hempen one, so that the cub is
45thereby trapped. Some of the subtlest secrets of the seas seemed divulged to us in this enchanted pond. We saw young
46Leviathan amours in the deep. *The sperm whale, as with all other species of the Leviathan, but unlike most other fish,
47breeds indifferently at all seasons; after a gestation which may probably be set down at nine months, producing but one
48at a time; though in some few known instances giving birth to an Esau and Jacob:--a contingency provided for in suckling
49by two teats, curiously situated, one on each side of the anus; but the breasts themselves extend upwards from that.
50When by chance these precious parts in a nursing whale are cut by the hunter's lance, the mother's pouring milk and
51blood rivallingly discolour the sea for rods. The milk is very sweet and rich; it has been tasted by man; it might do
52well with strawberries. When overflowing with mutual esteem, the whales salute more hominum. And thus, though surrounded
53by circle upon circle of consternations and affrights, did these inscrutable creatures at the centre freely and
54fearlessly indulge in all peaceful concernments; yea, serenely revelled in dalliance and delight. But even so, amid the
55tornadoed Atlantic of my being, do I myself still for ever centrally disport in mute calm; and while ponderous planets
56of unwaning woe revolve round me, deep down and deep inland there I still bathe me in eternal mildness of joy.
57Meanwhile, as we thus lay entranced, the occasional sudden frantic spectacles in the distance evinced the activity of
58the other boats, still engaged in drugging the whales on the frontier of the host; or possibly carrying on the war
59within the first circle, where abundance of room and some convenient retreats were afforded them. But the sight of the
60enraged drugged whales now and then blindly darting to and fro across the circles, was nothing to what at last met our
61eyes. It is sometimes the custom when fast to a whale more than commonly powerful and alert, to seek to hamstring him,
62as it were, by sundering or maiming his gigantic tail-tendon. It is done by darting a short-handled cutting-spade, to
63which is attached a rope for hauling it back again. A whale wounded (as we afterwards learned) in this part, but not
64effectually, as it seemed, had broken away from the boat, carrying along with him half of the harpoon line; and in the
65extraordinary agony of the wound, he was now dashing among the revolving circles like the lone mounted desperado Arnold,
66at the battle of Saratoga, carrying dismay wherever he went. But agonizing as was the wound of this whale, and an
67appalling spectacle enough, any way; yet the peculiar horror with which he seemed to inspire the rest of the herd, was
68owing to a cause which at first the intervening distance obscured from us. But at length we perceived that by one of the
69unimaginable accidents of the fishery, this whale had become entangled in the harpoon-line that he towed; he had also
70run away with the cutting-spade in him; and while the free end of the rope attached to that weapon, had permanently
71caught in the coils of the harpoon-line round his tail, the cutting-spade itself had worked loose from his flesh. So
72that tormented to madness, he was now churning through the water, violently flailing with his flexible tail, and tossing
73the keen spade about him, wounding and murdering his own comrades.
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