186 WHALE-FISHERY. 



have a sufficient reason for avoiding such situations 

 whenever fish can be found elsewhere. As con 

 nected with this subject, I can not pass over a cir- 

 cumstance which occurred within my own observa- 

 tion, and which excited my highest admiration. 



On the 8th of July, 1813, the ship Esk lay by 

 the edge of a large sheet of ice, in which were seve- 

 ral thin parts, and some holes. Here a fish being 

 heard blowing, a harpoon, with a line connected to 

 it, was conveyed across the ice, from a boat on 

 guard, and the harpoouer succeeded in striking the 

 whale, at the distance of 350 yards from the verge. 

 It dragged out ten lines, (&400 yards,) and was sup- 

 posed to be seen blowing in different holes in the 

 ice. After some time, it happened to make its ap- 

 pearance on the exterior, when a harpoon was struck 

 at the moment it was on the point of proceed- 

 ing again beneath. About a hundred yards from 

 the edge, it broke the ice where it was a foot in 

 thickness, with its crown, and respired through the 

 opening. It then determinately pushed forward, 

 breaking the ice as it advanced, in spite of the lances 

 constantly directed against it. It reached at length a 

 kind of bason in the field, where it floated on the sur- 

 face of the water, without any incumbrance from ice. 

 Its back being fairly exposed, the harpoon, struck 

 from the boat on the outside, was observed to be so 

 slightly entangled, that it was ready to drop out. 

 Some of the officers lamented this circumstance, and 

 expressed a wish that the harpoon were better fast, 



