Yes, we were now in that enchanted
calm which they say lurks at the heart of every commotion.
And still in the distracted distance we beheld the tumults of
the outer concentric circles, and saw successive pods of whales,
eight or ten in each, swiftly going round and round, like multiplied
spans of horses in a ring; and so closely shoulder to shoulder,
that a Titanic circus-rider might easily have over-arched
the middle ones, and so have gone round on their backs.
Owing to the density of the crowd of reposing whales,
more immediately surrounding the embayed axis of the herd,
no possible chance of escape was at present afforded us.
We must watch for a breach in the living wall that hemmed us in;
the wall that had only admitted us in order to shut us up.
Keeping at the centre of the lake, we were occasionally
visited by small tame cows and calves; the women and children
of this routed host.
Now, inclusive of the occasional wide intervals between
the revolving outer circles, and inclusive of the spaces
between the various pods in any one of those circles,
the entire area at this juncture, embraced by the whole multitude,
must have contained at least two or three square miles.
At any rate--though indeed such a test at such a time might
be deceptive--spoutings might be discovered from our low boat
that seemed playing up almost from the rim of the horizon.
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