THE ORDER CETACEA. 79 



harpoon, incautiously cast a little line under his feet, 

 that he had just hauled into his boat, after it had been 

 drawn out by the whale: a painful stroke of his lance 

 induced the animal to dart suddenly downward, his line 

 began to run out from beneath his feet, and in an in- 

 stant caught him by a turn round the body. He had 

 but just time to cry out, " clear away the line," — " Oh 

 dear ! " when he was almost cut asunder, dragged over- 

 board, and never seen afterwards. The line was cut 

 directly, but without avail. 



A whale sometimes produces danger by proving to be 

 alive after having exhibited every symptom of death. 

 Mr. Scoresby mentions the instance of one which ap- 

 peared so decidedly dead that he himself had leaped on 

 the tail, and was busy putting a rope through it, when 

 he suddenly felt the animal sinking from beneath him. 

 He made a spring towards a boat that was some yards 

 distant, and, grasping the gunwale, was assisted on board. 

 The whale then moved forward, reared his tail aloft, and 

 shook it with tremendous violence, that it resounded to 

 the distance of several miles. After two or three minutes 

 of this violent exertion, he rolled on his side, and ex- 

 pired. 



Even after life is extinct, all danger is not over. In 

 the operation of flensing, the harpooners sometimes fall 

 into the whale's mouth, with the imminent danger of being 

 drowned. In the case of a heavy swell of the sea, they 

 are drenched, and sometimes washed over by the surge. 

 Occasionally they have their ropes broken, and are 

 wounded by each other's knives. Mr. Scoresby men- 

 tions a harpooner who, after the flensing was completed, 

 happened to have his foot attached by a hook to the 

 kreng or carcase, when the latter was inadvertently cut 

 away. The man caught hold of the gunwale of the boat ; 



