56 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF 



The harpoon is the principal instrument used to catch 

 the whale, and is employed to fix the animal to the line ; 

 not to pierce and kill the animal, but merely to prevent 

 its escape. Some of the whalers employ what is called 

 the gun-harpoon, which is discharged from a peculiar 

 species of gun ; but owing to the noise of the report in 

 its discharge, which occasions considerable alarm to the 

 whale, it has not come into general use : consequently 

 the hand-harpoon is the one commonly employed, and is 

 generally thrown by the harpooner ; or, if he is suffi- 

 ciently near, he at once transfixes the whale with it.* 



When boats are approaching a whale, they row 

 towards it with the deepest silence, cautiously avoiding 

 the least noise that might give an alarm, of which the 

 whale is greatly susceptible ; in fact, there is not a more 

 timid animal inhabiting these seas. Occasionally, to 

 effect this purpose, they attack him behind, and a very 

 circuitous route is adopted. As soon as the harpooner 

 can safely and quietly approach the whale, he attacks 

 him with the harpoon : this is often a most critical and 

 dangerous moment ; for no sooner does this leviathan 

 feel himself attacked, than he throws himself into the 

 most violent and convulsive movements, in consequence 

 of the intense pain he suffers, frequently vibrating in the 

 air his tremendous tail, one dash alone of which is suffi- 

 cient to founder a boat into pieces, an occurrence to 

 which, unfortunately, the whalers are occasionally liable. 

 Generally, however, the monster, on feeling himself 

 wounded, dashes with great velocity into the depths of. the 

 sea, and oftentimes beneath the thickest floes and moun- 



* The'Congreve and other species of rockets have been unsuccessfully 

 employed to destroy the whale, as also an improved harpoon invented by 

 Captain Manby, F. R. S. But these are rarely employed, except ex- 

 perimentally. 



