文档介绍：MOBY DICK; OR THE WHITE WHALE
MOBY DICK; OR THE
WHITE WHALE
by Herman Melville
1
MOBY DICK; OR THE WHITE WHALE
In the tumultuous business of cutting-in and attending to a whale, there
is much running backwards and forwards among the crew. Now hands are
wanted here, and then again hands are wanted there. There is no staying in
any one place; for at one and the same time everything has to be done
everywhere. It is much the same with him who endeavors the description
of the scene. We must now retrace our way a little. It was mentioned that
upon first breaking ground in the whale's back, the blubber-hook was
inserted into the original hole there cut by the spades of the mates. But
how did so clumsy and weighty a mass as that same hook get fixed in that
hole? It was inserted there by my particular friend Queequeg, whose duty
it was, as harpooneer, to descend upon the monster's back for the special
purpose referred to. But in very many cases, circumstances require that the
harpooneer shall remain on the whale till the whole tensing or stripping
operation is concluded. The whale, be it observed, lies almost entirely
submerged, excepting the immediate parts operated upon. So down there,
some ten feet below the level of the deck, the poor harpooneer flounders
about, half on the whale and half in the water, as the vast mass revolves
like a tread-mill beneath hi