Ahab's Adventure's In Wonderland; or The Rabbit

Chapter Thirty-Five

Slowly wading through the meadows of carrot, a stillness almost preternatural spread over the field, however unattended with any stagnant calm; when the slippered green shoots whispered together as we softly passed; in this profound hush of the visible sphere a strange specter was spotted by Franklin.

In the distance, a white mass lazily rose, and rising higher and higher, and disentangling itself from the green, at last gleamed before us like a snow-slide, new slid from the hills. Thus glistening for a moment, as slowly it subsided, and sank back among the carrot tops. Then once more arose, and silently gleamed. It seemed not a rabbit; and yet is this Moby Dick? thought Franklin. Again the phantom went down, but on re-appearing once more, with a stiletto-like cry that startled every man from his nod, the negro yelled out--'There! there again! there she be! right ahead! The White Rabbit, the White Rabbit!'

Upon this, we charged forward, as in swarming-time the bees rush to the boughs. Bare-headed, Ahab stood by, and with one hand pushed far behind in readiness to wave his orders to his men, cast his eager glance in the direction indicated by the outstretched motionless arm of Franklin.

Whether the flitting attendance of the one still and solitary tuft of white had gradually worked upon Ahab, so that he was now prepared to connect the ideas of mildness and repose with the first sight of the particular rabbit he pursued; however this was, or whether his eagerness betrayed him; whichever way it might have been, no sooner did he distinctly perceive the white mass, than with a quick intensity he instantly gave orders to kill the rabbit.

We swiftly approached towards our prey. Soon it went down, and while, with guns suspended, we were awaiting its reappearance, lo! in the same spot where it sank, once more it slowly rose. Almost forgetting for the moment all thoughts of Moby Dick, we now gazed at the most wondrous phenomenon which the secret underground world has hitherto revealed to mankind. A vast pulpy mass, furlongs in length and breadth, of a glancing cream-color, was crawling across the ground, innumerable long arms radiating from its center, and curling and twisting like a nest of anacondas, as if blindly to clutch at any hapless object within reach. No perceptible face or front did it have; no conceivable token of either sensation or instinct; but undulated there on the billows, an unearthly, formless, chance-like apparition of life.

As with a low sucking sound it slowly disappeared again, Starbuck still gazing at the agitated carrot tops where it had sunk, with a wild voice exclaimed--'Almost rather had I seen Moby Dick and fought him, than to have seen thee, thou white ghost!'

'What was it, Sir?' asked Franklin.

'The great live squid, which, they say, few farmers have ever beheld, for it is not a creature that lives on land.'

There seems some ground to imagine that the great Kraken of Bishop Pontoppodan may ultimately resolve itself into Squid. The manner in which the Bishop describes it, as alternately rising and sinking, with some other particulars he narrates, in all this the two correspond. But much abatement is necessary with respect to the incredible bulk he assigns it.

By some naturalists who have vaguely heard rumors of the mysterious creature, here spoken of, it is included among the class of cuttle-fish, to which, indeed, in certain external respects it would seem to belong, but only as the Anak of the tribe. Whatever it's classification may be, I have no way of answering the most pertinent question, what it was doing there beneath the Earth. Verily, we had entered a land of much wonder.

Ahab said nothing; turning hisback to us, he headed back to the spot where we had held the Caucus-Race; therest as silently following.