VOYAGES IN THE POLAR SEA 



onions in readiness, and throw it into the water. When the whale perceives 

 the smell of the onions it finds it detestable, turns round and retreats. Then 

 they cut the flesh of the young one in pieces and salt it.^ And its flesh is 

 white as snow, and its skin black as ink." 2 



This is, clearly enough, a layman's naive description of 

 whaling with harpoon and harpoon-line in open waters, a 

 method which had therefore already been introduced into 

 Ireland by the Norwegians at that time. It may consequently 

 be regarded as certain that the 

 Norwegians were acquainted with 

 harpooning. That this was very 

 usual appears also from the " King's 

 Mirror" and the ancient Norwegian 

 laws, where whaling and whale- 

 harpoons (" skutill ") are often men- 

 tioned. 



On the west coast of Norway, in 

 the neighborhood of Bergen, there 

 is still practised to-day another 

 method of catching whales which 

 must be very ancient. When the great 

 whales enter certain fjords which have a narrow inlet, their 

 escape is cut off by nets, and they are shot with poisoned arrows 

 from bows which entirely resemble the cross-bows of the Middle 

 Ages. The arrows used are old and rusty, and convey bacteria 

 from one whale to another. When the whale has been hit by 

 these arrows it is rapidly weakened from blood-poisoning, so 

 that it may easily be harpooned and then killed by lances, after 

 which it is cut up and divided among the inhabitants of the 

 fjord, according to ancient, unwritten rules. In spite of the 

 blood-poisoning, the whale's flesh and blubber are eaten, and 

 are regarded as very valuable provisions. I have myself often 

 taken part in this kind of whaling. Possibly Peder Clausson 



Cutting up a whale [from 

 an Icelandic MS.] 



iThis is exactly what is still done with the whale on the west coast of 

 Norway. 



2 Cf. G. Jacob, 1896, pp. 23 f. 



