Moby Dick

Chapter 6

"The Streets"

Going out on the street, Ishmael found that savages like Queequeg were not rare, as he thought, but actually very common. Along with them were "other sights still more curious, certainly more comical." These were the green 'sailors' from Vermont andNew Hampshire and so forth, who wished to join the fishery.
 Also odd was the presence of great, expensive houses all over the town, which was on a quite desolate piece of land. The explanation for this was the riches that whaling brought.
 Ishmael finished by commenting on the beauty of New Bedford in summer, and the beauty of it's ladies all year.

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References:
Geographical:
Broadway, Chestnut, Regent, Water streets; Apollo Green and Wapping:
Feegeeans=>Fiji, Tongatabooarrs=>Tongo islands?, Erromanggoans, Pannangians, Brighggians
"save in Salem,"
"drawing nigh the odorous Moluccas instead of the Puritanic sands."
see footnote in ch. 2 for Moluccas.

Literary or Otherwise:
"here comes another with a sou'-wester and a bombazine cloak."
A sou'wester is a long oilskin [oiled cloth, waterproof] coat, worn esp. at sea during heavy storms.
Bombazine cloth is either: a silk fabric in twill weave dyed black; or a twilled fabric with a silk warp and worsted filling.
A twill weave is one in which the filling threads pass over one and under several warp threads so as to give the appearance of diagonal lines.
Worsted is a smooth compact yarn from long wool fibers used esp. for firm, napless fabrics, carpets, or knitting.
A nap is a hairy or downy surface.

"this once scraggy scoria of a country?" Wasteland; scoria comes from a Greek word meaning extrement.
"Can Herr Alexander perform a feat like that?"