Much concern
was shown; and Starbuck went down into the cabin to report
this unfavorable affair.*
*In Sperm-whalemen with any considerable quantity of oil on board,
it is a regular semiweekly duty to conduct a hose into the hold,
and drench the casks with sea-water; which afterwards,
at varying intervals, is removed by the ship's pumps.
Hereby the casks are sought to be kept damply tight; while by
the changed character of the withdrawn water, the mariners
readily detect any serious leakage in the precious cargo.
Now, from the South and West the Pequod was drawing nigh to Formosa
and the Bashee Isles, between which lies one of the tropical outlets
from the China waters into the Pacific. And so Starbuck found Ahab
with a general chart of the oriental archipelagoes spread before him;
and another separate one representing the long eastern coasts
of the Japanese islands--Niphon, Matsmai, and Sikoke. With his
snow-white new ivory leg braced against the screwed leg of his table,
and with a long pruning-hook of a jack-knife in his hand, the wondrous
old man, with his back to the gangway door, was wrinkling his brow,
and tracing his old courses again.
"Who's there?" hearing the footstep at the door, but not turning
round to it.
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