so that overawed by the rumors and portents concerning him, not a few of the fishermen recalled, in reference to moby dick, the earlier days of the sperm whale fishery, when it was oftentimes hard to induce long practised right whalemen to embark in the perils of this new and daring warfare; such men protesting that although other leviathans might be hopefully pursued, yet to chase and point lance at such an apparition as the sperm whale was not for mortal man. that to attempt it, would be inevitably to be torn into a quick eternity. on this head, there are some remarkable documents that may be consulted.