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Here be it said, that this pertinacious pursuit of one particular whale, continued through day into night, and through night into day, is a thing by no means unprecedented in the South sea fishery. For such is the wonderful skill, prescience of experience, and invincible confidence acquired by some great natural geniuses among the Nantucket commanders; that from the simple observation of a whale when last descried, they will, under certain given circumstances, pretty accurately foretell both the direction in which he will continue to swim for a time, while out of sight, as well as his probable rate of progression during that period. And, in these cases, somewhat as a pilot, when about losing sight of a coast, whose general trending he well knows, and which he desires shortly to return to again, but at some further point; like as this pilot stands by his compass, and takes the precise bearing of the cape at present visible, in order the more certainly to hit aright the remote, unseen headland, eventually to be visited: so does the fisherman, at his compass, with the whale; for after being chased, and diligently marked, through several hours of daylight, then, when night obscures the fish, the creature's future wake through the darkness is almost as established to the sagacious mind of the hunter, as the pilot's coast is to him. So that to this hunter's wondrous skill, the proverbial evanescence of a thing writ in water, a wake, is to all desired purposes well nigh as reliable as the steadfast land.

这里必须说明一下，象这样日以继夜，夜以继日，不住地追击一条大鲸，在南海的捕鱼业中，决不是件空前的事儿。因为这正是南塔开特船长中那些天生的大天才家，必须具有的绝技、先见之明和坚定的信心。他们从对最后一次所发见的鲸的简单的观察中，就能够在一种特定的情况下，相当精确地预言大鲸在看不到的时候，暂时继续往哪个方向游去，也能算出这段期间内大鲸的可能游速来。就这方面说来，倒有点象一个领港人，在他将要看不到海岸线的时候，他还是能够熟知总的航势，而且不久就可以重驶回来，不过稍为驶得比较远些而已；就象这个领港人是站在他的罗盘旁，就当时眼力所及地估计出海峡的准确角度，以便更能正确地直驶向那遥远的、一时虽还看不到、最后总会到达的岬崎，捕鱼人也是这般模样，守着他的罗盘，在搜索大鲸；因为经过了白天对它进行了几小时的追击，又勤奋地记录下来，那么，就是到了夜里，看不到那条鲸，可是，这东西在黑暗中的未来的动向，对那个敏锐的捕鱼人说来，简直就跟引港人对于海岸线一般，具有同样的把握。因此，凭这种猎人的绝技，这种俗语所谓瞬息万变的水情、航迹等情况的记录，其实际效用简直就同固定的陆地一样可靠。