I was taken by the very first two sentences in the chapter because of the description of Ahab’s physical reaction to literally smelling out the whale. “That night, in the mid-watch, when the old man-as his wont at times–stepped forth from the scuttle in which he leaned, and went to his pivot-hole he suddenly thrust out his face fiercely, snuffing up the sea air as a sagacious ship’s dog will, in drawing nigh to some barbarous isle. He declared that a whale must be near.” (Melville 594) The chapter begins while Ahab is in a moment of being lost in thought. The text reminds us that this is part of his usual nighttime habit. He is broken of thoughts because his senses are so deeply attuned to the hunting down of the whale and he is described in a doglike matter. Ahab goes from a moment of being in the midst of complex human thought and is suddenly taken over by a more animal like nature. This is further emphasized by the next line “snuffing up the air as a sagacious ship’s dog will, drawing nigh to some barbarous isle.” Melville says barbarous isle instead of simply saying land. The dog is called towards the place of wilderness as though by a primitive instinct. So to is Ahab led by that same primitive instinct to enact his revenge on the whale that is often described as an island. It is this need for revenge that has turned Ahab from a reasonable thinking human to into a more animal like figure. The book has been demanding that we learn to read and in reading these very physical sentences we can appreciate the lesson being imparted on us; Revenge can draw humans to a more baser nature that requires a certain loss of humanity.