But upon flinging the third, in the act of tossing overboard
the clumsy wooden block, it caught under one of the seats of the boat,
and in an instant tore it out and carried it away, dropping the
oarsman in the boat's bottom as the seat slid from under him.
On both sides the sea came in at the wounded planks, but we
stuffed two or three drawers and shirts in, and so stopped
the leaks for the time.
It had been next to impossible to dart these drugged-harpoons,
were it not that as we advanced into the herd, our whale's way
greatly diminished; moreover, that as we went still further
and further from the circumference of commotion, the direful
disorders seemed waning. So that when at last the jerking
harpoon drew out, and the towing whale sideways vanished;
then, with the tapering force of his parting momentum, we glided
between two whales into the innermost heart of the shoal, as if
from some mountain torrent we had slid into a serene valley lake.
Here the storms in the roaring glens between the outermost whales,
were heard but not felt. In this central expanse the sea
presented that smooth satin-like surface, called a sleek,
produced by the subtle moisture thrown off by the whale
in his more quiet moods.
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