174 WHALE-FISHERY. 



turing a whale? This is a question which can only 

 be answered indirectly; for I have myself witnessed 

 the capture of a large whale, which has been effect- 

 ed in twenty-eight minutes; and have also been en- 

 gaged with another fish which was lost, after it had 

 been entangled about sixteen hours. Instances are 

 well authenticated, in which whales have yielded 

 their lives to the lances of active fishers, within the 

 space of fifteen minutes from the time of being 

 struck; and in cases when fish have been shot with 

 a harpoon-gun, in a still shorter period; while other 

 instances are equally familiar and certain, wherein 

 a whale having gained the shelter of a pack or com- 

 pact patch of ice, has sustained or avoided every 

 attack upon it, during the space of forty or fifty 

 hours. Some whales have been captured when 

 very slightly entangled with a single harpoon, 

 while others have disengaged themselves, though 

 severely wounded with lances, by a single act of 

 violent and convulsive distortion of the body, or 

 tremendous shake of the tail, from four or more 

 harpoons; in which act, some of the lines have been 

 broken with apparent ease, and the harpoons, to 

 which other lines were attached, either broken or 

 torn out of the body of the vigorous animal. Gene- 

 rally, the speedy capture of a whale depends on 

 the activity of the harpooners, the favourableness 

 of situation and weather, and, in no inconsiderable 

 degree, on the peculiar conduct of the whale at- 

 tacked. Under the most favourable circumstances, 



