124 ARCTIC ZOOLOGY. 



for breath, and then almost instantly visited with the in- 

 struments of death, exhaustion follows, and he becomes 

 a bestunned object for the hunter's deliberate aim, when, 

 from the numberless plunges of the lance, the vital current 

 becomes spent, and the animal dies. Such an event is 

 not always unattended with danger to the hunters. 



Often in the first instance of being stricken, if recol- 

 lection of similar injury aid his anger, the retaliation of 

 the animal is destructive, for rushing backwards, in which 

 direction the assailants usually advance, a single touch of 

 the tail is sutficient for their destruction. The sudden vio- 

 lence with which the animal descends frequently produces 

 a similar effect if the line happen to meet obstruction in 

 its course ; and in the dying scene, pierced with many 

 wounds, the animal exhibits a terrific object by the mighti- 

 ness of his etibrts, though quite unconscious of the grand 

 effects produced by such exertions. Spouting a column of 

 apparent tlame, which, descending, covers the sea with a 

 crimsoned surface of acres in extent, at the same time 

 lashing the water all around into purple foam by the strokes 

 of the fins and tail, now and then endeavouring to re- 

 plunge in hopes of escaping, in which effort half the 

 body towards the tail is seen above water, the danger so 

 obvious is carefully avoided by the boats' crews, at that 

 crisis cautioned to remain at a secure distance, when the 

 lines fastened to the harpoons are slowly drawn in till the 



