TIIK WHALK FISHERY. 45 



serious injury. About 30 feet distance is the range usually sought for. This implement, in the 

 hands of a cool and skillful sailor, works ' like a charm,' and great is its destruction of the life of 

 leviathan. To illustrate this, and also the whole matter, an actual day's work of the captain 

 foresaid will now be detailed: 



''The present year the season lias been very backward; east and cold winds and rough 

 \\rather have prevailed, and the bait was at least two weeks later than usual in the bay. On 

 account of these and other unfavorable circumstances the whale catch in Provineetown neighbor- 

 hood has thus far been small. At 2 o'clock on a morning in May of last year the crew of the 

 schooner was aroused by the captain, the vessel then lying near the wharves in Provineetown 

 Harbor. She was got under way, and the spouting or 'blowing' of a whale could be plainly 

 heard from her deck. At once the chase began, the experienced captain working in the dark, at 

 times with prospects of success, but without its attainment as the hours passed. That there was 

 more than one whale in the harbor was evident, and one of them was a humpback, a prize, indeed, 

 and much more valuable than a finback, yielding twice as much of oil for the same size of creature. 

 As dawn streaked and day opened, one after another various other craft in the harbor became 

 awakened to what was going on, and numerous boats' crews put off from the shore to join in a chase 

 and possible capture, with the details of which they were perfectly familiar, and the tactics of 

 which wen 1 their common practice. 



"The first rays of the sun fell upon an exciting scene. There were a humpback whale and a 

 finback coursing about the harbor, the latter fully 65 feet in length. The chasing boats and 

 vessels represented a great variety of craft, and a still greater variety of crews and individuals 

 engaged. There were tall, short, crooked, lank, old, and young boat-steerers ; fat men puffing at 

 paddles, and lean men tugging at long oars. Excitement, emulation, and competition roused all 

 these men to prodigious efforts, and, in tlieir anxiety and enthusiasm, they manifested the most 

 singular traits and cut the oddest pranks. The finback led them a desperate chase, now here, now 

 there, until hours had slipped away, and he was not caught, although the very elite of Cape 

 Cod skill in whale capture, aided by experienced veterans of the northern and Pacific fleets, had 

 lent a hand. Away over on the east side of the harbor the humpback was finally stricken, a bomb- 

 lance entering his huge body, shattering his backbone in the explosion, and the monster died 

 instantly. A vigorous and triumphant yell announced the capture, but the finback escaped. The 

 schooner then proceeded outside, and followed the shore towards the Race. 



"From the time of leaving the harbor until noon not a whale was sighted. The waters of a 

 pond inshore were apparently no more free of the creatures than was Cape Cod Bay at that time. 

 About noon it fell flat calm, and the schooner drifted lazily. But as the early afternoon advanced 

 the cry of ' Blows !' awoke every man to the knowledge that an immediate change in the status 

 might be at hand. The sun was burning hot, and the face of the bay like a mirror. In less time 

 after the first cry than it takes to tell the incident no less than fifteen ' blows' were counted, and 

 whales were in abundance on every hand. 



"The boat, which had been towing astern, was at once occupied, and the advance, which 

 promised the fairest success, was made without delay. The spouting columns appeared at regular 

 intervals, and soon the boat was in close proximity. Headway was stopped, the oarsmen 

 exchanged their oars for stumpy paddles, like those with which an Indian manages his canoe, 

 and every one of them took his seat upon the gunwale of the boat, paddle in hand, ready for 

 orders. The captain took his stand forward, gun in hand, ready to discharge the lance at the first 

 favorable opportunity. The whales (there were a pair of them, male and female, as it proved) 



sportive, and at once began a reconnaissance of the boat. They would sink about 10 feet below 



