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Cast Down Your Bucket

Posted by Tom dewey on January 27, 2002

Not exactly a phrase, but in one of his novels, Melville relates a story of a sailing ship signaling to Melville's narrator that
they were out of drinking water. Melville's skipper signals back to "cast down your bucket." They are off the coast of
South America in the vicinity of the the Amazon and Melville's skipper knows that the river extends for miles into the
Atlantic. The other skipper is either unfamiliar with the terrain or inexperienced. He can't understand that there is
potable water under his keel.

Anybody know which novel this scene appears?

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