62 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF 



which is frequently below zero, carrying along with 

 them their clothes made into a bundle, with a piece of 

 rope-yarn, trusting to find an opportunity when in 

 the boats of dressing themselves, or during the time 

 the boats are lowering. There is such a degree of tu- 

 mult and noise on this occasion, that Captain Scoresby 

 informs us he has known young mariners raise cries of 

 alarm, thinking the ship was going down : and a recent 

 writer states, in one instance the panic was so great, that 

 death speedily followed.* The alarm of " a fall " has a 

 singular effect on the feelings of a sleeping person, un- 

 accustomed to the whale-fishing business. It has often 

 been mistaken as a cry of distress. A landsman, in a 

 Hull ship, seeing the crew, on an occasion of a fall, 

 rush upon deck, with their clothes in their hands, and 

 leap into the boats, when there was no appearance of 

 danger, thought the men were all mad. 



The period that a whale remains beneath the surface 

 of the water varies ; but Captain Scoresby estimates it 

 at half an hour. Pressed for respiration, he re-appears 

 above, generally at a considerable distance from the spot 

 where he was first harpooned, in a state of great ex- 

 haustion, which is ascribed to the severe pressure en- 

 dured when placed beneath a column of water of 700 01 

 800 fathoms deep, and which must be equal to 211,200 

 tons. When a boat is fast to a whale, the others row 

 about in various directions, that one at least may get a 

 start, as it is denominated, about 200 yards off the point 

 of his rising, at which distance they can easily reach and 

 pierce him with one or two more harpoons prior to his 

 again descending, which is usually the case for a few 



* " Narrative of Discovery and Adventures in the Polar Seas and 

 Regions," 1831. Page 384. 



