SPITZBERGEN 29 



lungs or liver, at which time the fish spouts out a vast quantity 

 of blood through the pipes, which rises into the air as high as 

 the mast: then they desist, and the fish finding himself wounded 

 in so sensible a part, begins to rage most furiously, battering 

 the sea and his body with his fins and tail, till the sea is all in a 

 foam; and when he strikes the fins against his body, and his 

 tail at the waves, you may hear it half a league distance, the 

 sound being no less than if a great cannon was discharged. This 

 struggling affords so agreeable a spectacle to the beholders, that 

 those who have seen it assure us, that they could never be tired 

 with the sight of it. Whilst the whale is making his last 

 efforts, the chalops are obliged to follow him sometimes for two 

 leagues together, till having lost all his strength he turns upon 

 one side, and as soon as he is dead upon his back; then they draw 

 him with ropes either ashore (if it be near Spitsbergen) or else 

 to the ship, where he is kept so long till he rises above the 

 water; for the first day he lies almost even with the surface of 

 the water, the second he rises about six or seven foot above it, 

 and the third sometimes as high as the sides of the ship. On 

 board each ship there is one whose business it is to open the 

 fish, who after he has put on his garment fitted for that pur- 

 pose, cuts open his belly with a very large knife, which is not 

 done without a roaring noise, and an intolerable smell sent forth 

 from the entrails of this beast: but notwitstanding the man 

 proceeds in his business, separating the flesh from the bones by 

 pieces of two or three hundred weight, which are conveyed thus 

 either ashore or on board the vessel, where they are cut again 

 in smaller pieces. The tail of this creature serves for a hacking 

 block, being so very nervous and strong, that it exceeds any 

 wood whatsoever for this use. Being thus cut into small pieces, 

 those who have their settlements at Spitsbergen extract the oil 

 immediately by boiling it ashore, which being put into barrels, 

 is thus transported to the respective places to which the ships 

 belong. But those who want this conveniency, and go only 

 abroad to catch the whales in the open sea, are fain to put up 

 these pieces in barrels, which they carry home, and boil them 

 after the same manner as they do at Spitsbergen; but this is of 



