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- Герман Мелвилл
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- Моби Дик
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- Стр. 228/297
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Forty
men
in
one
ship
hunting
the
Sperm
Whales
for
forty-eight
months
think
they
have
done
extremely
well
,
and
thank
God
,
if
at
last
they
carry
home
the
oil
of
forty
fish
.
Whereas
,
in
the
days
of
the
old
Canadian
and
Indian
hunters
and
trappers
of
the
West
,
when
the
far
west
(
in
whose
sunset
suns
still
rise
)
was
a
wilderness
and
a
virgin
,
the
same
number
of
moccasined
men
,
for
the
same
number
of
months
,
mounted
on
horse
instead
of
sailing
in
ships
,
would
have
slain
not
forty
,
but
forty
thousand
and
more
buffaloes
;
a
fact
that
,
if
need
were
,
could
be
statistically
stated
.
Nor
,
considered
aright
,
does
it
seem
any
argument
in
favor
of
the
gradual
extinction
of
the
Sperm
Whale
,
for
example
,
that
in
former
years
(
the
latter
part
of
the
last
century
,
say
)
these
Leviathans
,
in
small
pods
,
were
encountered
much
oftener
than
at
present
,
and
,
in
consequence
,
the
voyages
were
not
so
prolonged
,
and
were
also
much
more
remunerative
.
Because
,
as
has
been
elsewhere
noticed
,
those
whales
,
influenced
by
some
views
to
safety
,
now
swim
the
seas
in
immense
caravans
,
so
that
to
a
large
degree
the
scattered
solitaries
,
yokes
,
and
pods
,
and
schools
of
other
days
are
now
aggregated
into
vast
but
widely
separated
,
unfrequent
armies
.
That
is
all
.
And
equally
fallacious
seems
the
conceit
,
that
because
the
so-called
whale-bone
whales
no
longer
haunt
many
grounds
in
former
years
abounding
with
them
,
hence
that
species
also
is
declining
.
For
they
are
only
being
driven
from
promontory
to
cape
;
and
if
one
coast
is
no
longer
enlivened
with
their
jets
,
then
,
be
sure
,
some
other
and
remoter
strand
has
been
very
recently
startled
by
the
unfamiliar
spectacle
.
Furthermore
:
concerning
these
last
mentioned
Leviathans
,
they
have
two
firm
fortresses
,
which
,
in
all
human
probability
,
will
for
ever
remain
impregnable
.
And
as
upon
the
invasion
of
their
valleys
,
the
frosty
Swiss
have
retreated
to
their
mountains
;
so
,
hunted
from
the
savannas
and
glades
of
the
middle
seas
,
the
whale-bone
whales
can
at
last
resort
to
their
Polar
citadels
,
and
diving
under
the
ultimate
glassy
barriers
and
walls
there
,
come
up
among
icy
fields
and
floes
!
and
in
a
charmed
circle
of
everlasting
December
,
bid
defiance
to
all
pursuit
from
man
.
But
as
perhaps
fifty
of
these
whale-bone
whales
are
harpooned
for
one
cachalot
,
some
philosophers
of
the
forecastle
have
concluded
that
this
positive
havoc
has
already
very
seriously
diminished
their
battalions
.
But
though
for
some
time
past
a
number
of
these
whales
,
not
less
than
13,000
,
have
been
annually
slain
on
the
nor
'
west
coast
by
the
Americans
alone
;
yet
there
are
considerations
which
render
even
this
circumstance
of
little
or
no
account
as
an
opposing
argument
in
this
matter
.
Natural
as
it
is
to
be
somewhat
incredulous
concerning
the
populousness
of
the
more
enormous
creatures
of
the
globe
,
yet
what
shall
we
say
to
Harto
,
the
historian
of
Goa
,
when
he
tells
us
that
at
one
hunting
the
King
of
Siam
took
4,000
elephants
;
that
in
those
regions
elephants
are
numerous
as
droves
of
cattle
in
the
temperate
climes
.
And
there
seems
no
reason
to
doubt
that
if
these
elephants
,
which
have
now
been
hunted
for
thousands
of
years
,
by
Semiramis
,
by
Porus
,
by
Hannibal
,
and
by
all
the
successive
monarchs
of
the
East
--
if
they
still
survive
there
in
great
numbers
,
much
more
may
the
great
whale
outlast
all
hunting
,
since
he
has
a
pasture
to
expatiate
in
,
which
is
precisely
twice
as
large
as
all
Asia
,
both
Americas
,
Europe
and
Africa
,
New
Holland
,
and
all
the
Isles
of
the
sea
combined
.
Moreover
:
we
are
to
consider
,
that
from
the
presumed
great
longevity
of
whales
,
their
probably
attaining
the
age
of
a
century
and
more
,
therefore
at
any
one
period
of
time
,
several
distinct
adult
generations
must
be
contemporary
.
And
what
this
is
,
we
may
soon
gain
some
idea
of
,
by
imagining
all
the
grave-yards
,
cemeteries
,
and
family
vaults
of
creation
yielding
up
the
live
bodies
of
all
the
men
,
women
,
and
children
who
were
alive
seventy-five
years
ago
;
and
adding
this
countless
host
to
the
present
human
population
of
the
globe
.
Wherefore
,
for
all
these
things
,
we
account
the
whale
immortal
in
his
species
,
however
perishable
in
his
individuality
.
He
swam
the
seas
before
the
continents
broke
water
;
he
once
swam
over
the
site
of
the
Tuileries
,
and
Windsor
Castle
,
and
the
Kremlin
In
Noah
's
flood
he
despised
Noah
's
Ark
;
and
if
ever
the
world
is
to
be
again
flooded
,
like
the
Netherlands
,
to
kill
off
its
rats
,
then
the
eternal
whale
will
still
survive
,
and
rearing
upon
the
topmost
crest
of
the
equatorial
flood
,
spout
his
frothed
defiance
to
the
skies
.
The
precipitating
manner
in
which
Captain
Ahab
had
quitted
the
Samuel
Enderby
of
London
,
had
not
been
unattended
with
some
small
violence
to
his
own
person
.
He
had
lighted
with
such
energy
upon
a
thwart
of
his
boat
that
his
ivory
leg
had
received
a
half-splintering
shock
.
And
when
after
gaining
his
own
deck
,
and
his
own
pivot-hole
there
,
he
so
vehemently
wheeled
round
with
an
urgent
command
to
the
steersman
(
it
was
,
as
ever
,
something
about
his
not
steering
inflexibly
enough
)
;
then
,
the
already
shaken
ivory
received
such
an
additional
twist
and
wrench
,
that
though
it
still
remained
entire
,
and
to
all
appearances
lusty
,
yet
Ahab
did
not
deem
it
entirely
trustworthy
.
