Meanwhile, all the boats tore on. The repeated specific
allusions of Flask to "that whale," as he called the fictitious
monster which he declared to be incessantly tantalizing
his boat's bow with its tail--these allusions of his were at
times so vivid and life-like, that they would cause some one
or two of his men to snatch a fearful look over his shoulder.
But this was against all rule; for the oarsmen must put
out their eyes, and ram a skewer through their necks;
usages announcing that they must have no organs but ears;
and no limbs but arms, in these critical moments.
It was a sight full of quick wonder and awe! The vast swells
of the omnipotent sea; the surging, hollow roar they made,
as they rolled along the eight gunwales, like gigantic bowls in a
boundless bowling-green; the brief suspended agony of the boat,
as it would tip for an instant on the knife-like edge of the
sharper waves, that almost seemed threatening to cut it in two;
the sudden profound dip into the watery glens and hollows;
the keen spurrings and goadings to gain the top of the opposite hill;
the headlong, sled-like slide down its other side;--all these,
with the cries of the headsmen and harpooneers, and the shuddering
gasps of the oarsmen, with the wondrous sight of the ivory
Pequod bearing down upon her boats with outstretched sails,
like a wild hen after her screaming brood;--all this was thrilling.
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