WHALE-FISHERY. 19$ 



the means of its loss;* and a tongue of the ice, on 

 which was a depth of several feet of water, kept the 

 boat, by the pressure of the line against it, at such 

 a considerable distance as prevented the crew from 

 leaping upon the floe. Some of them were, there- 

 fore, put to the necessity of swimming for their pre- 

 servation, but all of them succeeded in scrambling 

 upon the ice, and were taken aboard of the ship a few 

 minutes afterwards. I may here observe, that it is 

 an uncommon circumstance for a fish to take more 

 than two boats' lines in such a situation; — none of 

 our harpooners, therefore, had any scruple in leav- 

 ing the fast-boat, never suspecting, after it had re- 

 ceived the assistance of one boat, with six lines or 

 upwards, that it would need any more. 



Several ships being about us, there was a pos- 

 sibility that some person might attack and make 

 a prize of the whale, when it had so far escaped 

 us, that we no longer retained any hold of it; as 

 such, we set all sail the ship could safely sustain, 

 and worked through several narrow and intricate 

 channels in the ice, in the direction I observed the 

 fish had retreated. After a little time, it was de- 



* " Giving a whale the boat" as the voluntary sacrifice of 

 a boat is termed, is a scheme not unfrequently practised by 

 the fisher, when in want ofline. By submitting to this risk, 

 he expects to gain the fish, and still has the chance of recov- 

 ering his boat and its materials. It is only practised in 

 open ice or at fields. 



