412 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



of hooks and lines, spears, and even nets, an effort is made to 

 destroy them in a much more wholesale manner. Even the 

 whale fishery, which for so long a time has been carried on 

 by means of the harpoon, has, as is well known, lately been 

 prosecuted by firing explosive substances into the body of the 

 animal with shoulder-guns or with cannon, and thus disabling 

 it very quickly. This method has been adopted by many 

 whalers in the Greenland seas, and has been especially ap- 

 plied of late to' the taking of the large finback whales of the 

 Norwegian coast. These animals have hitherto been but lit- 

 tle disturbed by whalers, as, although of enormous size (from 

 sixty to ninety feet), they possess comparatively little blub- 

 ber, and are so active as to be rarely, if ever, successfully at- 

 tacked by the harpoou. 



A recent writer in Land and Water recounts a late visit 

 to the establishment of Herr Foyen, in the Varangar Fiord, 

 where, from a small island, the fishery is prosecuted by means 

 of two small steamers of about seventy tons each. The spe- 

 cial apparatus employed consists of a harpoon, inclosing in 

 its head half a pound of gunpowder, and with jointed or 

 hinged barbs containing some percussion powder between 

 them. When the whale is within gunshot, this harpoon, at- 

 tached to the end of a long cord coiled around a drum, is 

 fired into the animal from a cannon about the size of a four- 

 pounder. As the flukes penetrate the side of the whale they 

 are naturally brought together or pressed down toward the 

 shaft, and, in so doing, ignite the percussion powder, which 

 sets fire to the gunpowder, causing an explosion in the body 

 of the animal that usually produces a mortal wound. The 

 whale, of course, starts off under the stimulus of the pain, 

 and the rope is carried out for a time, being uncoiled from 

 the drum precisely like a fishing-line from the reel of a fish- 

 ing-rod, the steamer following after so as to prevent any un- 

 due strain. If necessary, a second discharge takes place, 

 which almost invariably produces death. 



The steamer then tows the animal back to the station, 

 where the blubber is taken off in a long strip by means of 

 properly constructed apparatus, after which the flesh is re- 

 moved in a somewhat similar manner, and finally the bones 

 are separated and hauled out. It is the intention of the pro- 

 prietor to prepare a fertilizer by drying the flesh and redu- 



