And now it is struck; for, starting from his trance into that
unspeakable thing called his "flurry," the monster horribly wallowed
in his blood, overwrapped himself in impenetrable, mad, boiling spray,
so that the imperilled craft, instantly dropping astern, had much ado
blindly to struggle out from that phrensied twilight into the clear
air of the day.
And now abating in his flurry, the whale once more rolled out into view!
surging from side to side; spasmodically dilating and contracting
his spout-hole, with sharp, cracking, agonized respirations.
At last, gush after gush of clotted red gore, as if it had been
the purple lees of red wine, shot into the frightened air; and falling
back again, ran dripping down his motionless flanks into the sea.
His heart had burst!
"He's dead, Mr. Stubb," said Daggoo.
"Yes; both pipes smoked out!" and withdrawing his own from his mouth,
Stubb scattered the dead ashes over the water; and, for a moment,
stood thoughtfully eyeing the vast corpse he had made.
CHAPTER 62
The Dart
A word concerning an incident in the last chapter.
According to the invariable usage of the fishery, the whale-boat
pushes off from the ship, with the headsman or whale-killer as
temporary steersman, and the harpooneer or whale-fastener pulling
the foremost oar, the one known as the harpooneer-oar.
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