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- 3851
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:14.838Z
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- structure-extraction-lambda
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- 3789
- text
- But it is always thus. If you read of St. Peter’s, they say, and then
go and visit it, ten to one, you account it a dwarf compared to your
high-raised ideal. And, doubtless, Jonah himself must have been
disappointed when he looked up to the domed midriff surmounting the
whale’s belly, and surveyed the ribbed pillars around him. A pretty
large belly, to be sure, thought he, but not so big as it might have
been.
On the next day, the fog lifted; and by noon, we found ourselves
sailing through fleets of fishermen at anchor. They were very small
craft; and when I beheld them, I perceived the force of that sailor
saying, intended to illustrate restricted quarters, or being _on the
limits. It is like a fisherman’s walk,_ say they, _three steps and
overboard._
Lying right in the track of the multitudinous ships crossing the ocean
between England and America, these little vessels are sometimes run
down, and obliterated from the face of the waters; the cry of the
sailors ceasing with the last whirl of the whirlpool that closes over
their craft. Their sad fate is frequently the result of their own
remissness in keeping a good look-out by day, and not having their
lamps trimmed, like the wise virgins, by night.
As I shall not make mention of the Grand Banks on our homeward-bound
passage, I may as well here relate, that on our return, we approached
them in the night; and by way of making sure of our whereabouts, the
deep-sea-lead was heaved. The line attached is generally upward of
three hundred fathoms in length; and the lead itself, weighing some
forty or fifty pounds, has a hole in the lower end, in which, previous
to sounding, some tallow is thrust, that it may bring up the soil at
the bottom, for the captain to inspect. This is called “arming” the
lead.
We “hove” our deep-sea-line by night, and the operation was very
interesting, at least to me. In the first place, the vessel’s heading
was stopt; then, coiled away in a tub, like a whale-rope, the line was
placed toward the after part of the quarter-deck; and one of the
sailors carried the lead outside of the ship, away along to the end of
the jib-boom, and at the word of command, far ahead and overboard it
went, with a plunge; scraping by the side, till it came to the stern,
when the line ran out of the tub like light.
When we came to haul _it_ up, I was astonished at the force necessary
to perform the work. The whole watch pulled at the line, which was rove
through a block in the mizzen-rigging, as if we were hauling up a fat
porpoise. When the lead came in sight, I was all eagerness to examine
the tallow, and get a peep at a specimen of the bottom of the sea; but
the sailors did not seem to be much interested by it, calling me a fool
for wanting to preserve a few grains of the sand.
I had almost forgotten to make mention of the Gulf Stream, in which we
found ourselves previous to crossing the Banks. The fact of our being
in it was proved by the captain in person, who superintended the
drawing of a bucket of salt water, in which he dipped his thermometer.
In the absence of the Gulf-weed, this is the general test; for the
temperature of this current is eight degrees higher than that of the
ocean, and the temperature of the ocean is twenty degrees higher than
that of the Grand Banks. And it is to this remarkable difference of
temperature, for which there can be no equilibrium, that many seamen
impute the fogs on the coast of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland; but why
there should always be such ugly weather in the Gulf, is something that
I do not know has ever been accounted for.
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