forced into familiarity, then, with such prodigies as these; and knowing that after repeated, intrepid assaults, the white whale had escaped alive; it cannot be much matter of surprise that some whalemen should go still further in their superstitions; declaring moby dick not only ubiquitous, but immortal (for immortality is but ubiquity in time); that though groves of spears should be planted in his flanks, he would still swim away unharmed; or if indeed he should ever be made to spout thick blood, such a sight would be but a ghastly deception; for again in unensanguined billows hundreds of leagues away, his unsullied jet would once more be seen.