And as the mighty iron Leviathan of the modern railway is so familiarly
known in its every pace, that, with watches in their hands, men time
his rate as doctors that of a baby's pulse; and lightly say of it,
the up train or the down train will reach such or such a spot,
at such or such an hour; even so, almost, there are occasions
when these Nantucketers time that other Leviathan of the deep,
according to the observed humor of his speed; and say to themselves,
so many hours hence this whale will have gone two hundred miles,
will have about reached this or that degree of latitude or longitude.
But to render this acuteness at all successful in the end, the wind
and the sea must be the whaleman's allies; for of what present avail
to the becalmed or wind-bound mariner is the skill that assures him
he is exactly ninety-three leagues and a quarter from his port?
Inferable from these statements, are many collateral subtile matters
touching the chase of whales.
The ship tore on; leaving such a furrow in the sea as when
a cannonball, missent, becomes a plough-share and turns up
the level field.
"By salt and hemp!" cried Stubb, "but this swift motion of the deck
creeps up one's legs and tingles at the heart.
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