But even so, amid the tornadoed Atlantic of my being,
do I myself still for ever centrally disport in mute calm;
and while ponderous planets of unwaning woe revolve round me,
deep down and deep inland there I still bathe me in eternal
mildness of joy.
Meanwhile, as we thus lay entranced, the occasional sudden frantic
spectacles in the distance evinced the activity of the other boats,
still engaged in drugging the whales on the frontier of the host;
or possibly carrying on the war within the first circle,
where abundance of room and some convenient retreats were afforded them.
But the sight of the enraged drugged whales now and then blindly darting
to and fro across the circles, was nothing to what at last met our eyes.
It is sometimes the custom when fast to a whale more than commonly
powerful and alert, to seek to hamstring him, as it were,
by sundering or maiming his gigantic tail-tendon. It is done by
darting a short-handled cutting-spade, to which is attached a rope
for hauling it back again. A whale wounded (as we afterwards learned)
in this part, but not effectually, as it seemed, had broken away
from the boat, carrying along with him half of the harpoon line;
and in the extraordinary agony of the wound, he was now dashing
among the revolving circles like the lone mounted desperado Arnold,
at the battle of Saratoga, carrying dismay wherever he went.
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