"Though nominally included in the census of Christendom, he was still an alien to it. He lived in the world as the last of the Grisly Bears lived in settled Missouri. And as when Spring and Summer had departed, that wild Logan of the woods, burying himself in the hollow of a tree, lived out the winter there, sucking his own paws; so, in his inclement, howling old age, Ahab’s soul, shut up in the caved trunk of his body, there fed upon the sullen paws of its gloom!"
Musing: Nothing to muse on but the beautiful description of Ahab. We are still learning about him in these opening chapters. I am still learning about Ahab after many readings of this novel.