The sudden exclamations of the crew must have alarmed the whale; and ere the boats were down, majestically turning, he swam away to the leeward, but with such a steady tranquillity, and making so few ripples as he swam, that thinking after all he might not as yet be alarmed, Ahab gave orders that not an oar should be used, and no man must speak but in whispers.  So seated like Ontario Indians on the gunwales of the boats, we swiftly but silently paddled along; the calm not admitting of the noiseless sails being set.  Presently, as we thus glided in chase, the monster perpendicularly flitted his tail forty feet into the air, and then sank out of sight like a tower swallowed up.

“There go flukes!” was the cry, an announcement immediately followed by Stubb’s producing his match and igniting his pipe, for now a respite was granted.  After the full interval of his sounding had elapsed, the whale rose again, and being now in advance of the smoker’s boat, and much nearer to it than to any of the others, Stubb counted upon the honor of the capture.  It was obvious, now, that the whale had at length become aware of his pursuers.  All silence of cautiousness was therefore no longer of use.  Paddles were dropped, and oars came loudly into play.  And still puffing at his pipe, Stubb cheered on his crew to the assault.

Yes, a mighty change had come over the fish.  All alive to his jeopardy, he was going “head out”; that part obliquely projecting from the mad yeast which he brewed.*

It will be seen in some other place of what a very light substance the entire interior of the sperm whale’s enormous head consists.  Though apparently the most massive, it is by far the most buoyant part about him.  So that with ease he elevates it in the air, and invariably does so when going at his utmost speed.  Besides, such is the breadth of the upper part of the front of his head, and such the tapering cut-water formation of the lower part, that by obliquely elevating his head, he thereby may be said to transform himself from a bluff-bowed sluggish galliot into a sharppointed New York pilot-boat.

“Start her, start her, my men!  Don’t hurry yourselves; take plenty of time—­but start her; start her like thunder-claps, that’s all,” cried Stubb, spluttering out the smoke as he spoke.  “Start her, now; give ’em the long and strong stroke, Tashtego.  Start her, Tash, my boy—­ start her, all; but keep cool, keep cool—­cucumbers is the word—­ easy, easy—­only start her like grim death and grinning devils, and raise the buried dead perpendicular out of their graves, boys—­ that’s all.  Start her!”

“Woo-hoo!  Wa-hee!” screamed the Gay-Header in reply, raising some old war-whoop to the skies; as every oarsman in the strained boat involuntarily bounced forward with the one tremendous leading stroke which the eager Indian gave.

But his wild screams were answered by others quite as wild.  “Kee-hee!  Kee-hee!” yelled Daggoo, straining forwards and backwards on his seat, like a pacing tiger in his cage.