46 HISTOEY AND METHODS OF THE FISHEEIES. 



the surface, roll partly upon one side, and cast an eye upward, as if speculating upon the apparition, 

 and occasionally come up, blow, and roll lazily under again. Their every motion could be plainly 

 seen while they were under water, and their movements anticipated. The captain singled out the 

 female, the largest and best animal, and thenceforth all attention was paid to her movements. At 

 last she came slowly to the surface, just moved her immense tail with the necessary motion to 

 change her direction, and started directly across the bow of the boat, under the very nose of the 

 captain. A straightforward bow shot was what he had been waiting for, and in an instant the gun 

 was at his shoulder. Up to this moment the men had all been guided by expressive wavings of the 

 captain's hand ; and his every motion was watched as men watch for a drop to fall during an 

 execution. As the gigantic finback passed she proved to be upwards of 65 feet in length she 

 rolled slightly to one side, and threw up the nipper nearest the captain as a man would throw up 

 the elbow of his bent arm to a level with the shoulder. Quick as thought the captain fired, the 

 lance struck the huge carcass just under the nipper and entirely disappeared, and the empty gun 

 was flung along the bottom of the boat. 



" Instantly the captain was standing on the bow deck, harpoon in hand. The whale was 

 motionless, apparently with absolute astonishment. In this moment of quiet, which could not be 

 prolonged, the boat slightly advanced, the captain's both hands arose high in the air, the harpoon 

 descended directly downward, and the whale was transfixed, the iron entering her body near the 

 tail. The lance had seemingly hardly left the gun at greater speed than the initial movement of 

 that whale when consciousness was aroused. The whale line attached to the harpoon was coiled 

 with characteristic care in two tubs nearly amidships, led aft around the loggerhead in the stern 

 deck, and then forward through a notch in the extreme bow, out of which it was kept from slip- 

 ping by a pin passed through the two upper parts of the crotch. Instantly every man was stand- 

 ing along this line, grasping it with hat in hand to preserve it from the intense friction. The 

 loggerhead was kept constantly wet, and a man stood over it, hatchet in hand, to cut upon the first 

 ' foul,' or other indication of extreme danger. And now appeared the wisdom of the movements. 

 The lance had entered the vitals of the whale, inflicting, it was well known, a terrible internal 

 wound upon its explosion. Had this not been the case, and only the harpoon held the whale, she 

 would have finished the race incontinently by obliging the crew to slip the line, or be drawn 

 under water. As it was, she must soon come up for further action. To appreciate the situation 

 that ensued, you should have seen that boat go through the water ; that is, you should have been 

 seated upon one of her thwarts or along her bottom. The whale moved forward and also down- 

 ward, and the water was then many fathoms deep. The downward movement, of course, depressed 

 the bow of the boat, and the immediate danger was from being drawn under by motion too swift to 

 allow the cutting of the surface. At once a great trough was made in the smooth sea by the flying 

 craft, the boat occupying the cavity, and from both her sides a sloping bank of water, inclining 

 outward and upward, seemed builded about her. To one sitting upon a thwart and looking out- 

 ward, the surface of the bay seemed just opposite the line of his eyes, so great was the depression 

 of the trough. 



" Now, then, a sheer of the whale and the boat would take water at once over the side. The 

 forward movement became too swift, the bow too much depressed. Fathom after fathom was 

 allowed to slip around the loggerhead, until 50, 60, SO, 100 fathoms had been paid out, and three 

 or four minutes had elapsed. The whale had been struck off the Eace, and had started across 

 the bay in the direction of Plymouth. 



"At the end of the time indicated the line began to slack and the whale to move upward from 

 the bottom of the bay. Still, however, she tore onward. As fasl us could be the line was hauled 



