200 WHALE-FISHERY. 



scried by the people in the boats, at a considerable 

 distance to the eastward; a general chase immediate- 

 ly commenced, and in the space of an hour three 

 harpoons were struck. We now imagined the fish 

 was secure, but our expectations were premature. 

 The whale resolutely pushed beneath a large floe 

 that had recently been broke to pieces by the swell, 

 and soon drew all the lines out of the second fast- 

 boat, the officer of which, not being able to get any 

 assistance, tied the end of his line to a hummock of 

 ice, and broke it. Soon afterwards, the other two 

 boats, si\\\ fast, were dragged against the broken floe, 

 when one of the harpoons drew out. The line of only 

 one boat, therefore, remained fast to the fish, and 

 with six or eight lines out, was dragged forward 

 into the shattered floe with astonishing force. Pieces 

 of ice, each of which was sufficiently large to have 

 answered the purpose of mooring a ship, were 

 wheeled about by the strength of the whale; and 

 such was the tension and elasticity of the line, that 

 whenever it slipped clear of any mass of ice, after 

 turning it round, into the space between any two ad- 

 joining pieces, the boat and its crew flew forward 

 through the creek, with the velocity of an arrow, 

 and never failed to launch several feet upon the first 

 mass of ice that it encountered. 



While we scoured the sea, around the broken 

 floe with the ship, and while the ice was attempted 

 in vain by the boats, the whale continued to press 

 forward in an easterly direction towards the sea. 



