THE MUSEUM. 



185 



ure to a realization of his danger, and 

 with a great snort of pain he began to 

 dive and spout as he started off 

 through the water at a terrific speed. 

 About two hundred fathoms of the 

 line were passed out and then secure- 

 ly fastened, allowing the whale to trail 

 both boats in his wake. He contin- 

 ued thus to tow the boats throughout 

 the night, circling around and about 

 the islands of the bay — never stopping, 

 and only occasionally slackening his 

 pace. 



The bay was brilliant with phosphor- 

 escence as the monster darted through 

 the water at a fearful rate, splashing 

 and churning it into foam. In the 

 early morning shortly after daylight, 

 they succeeded in planting another 

 harpoon in his body, a large barrel 

 buoy being attached to the line about 

 one hundred feet from the harpoon. 

 As the nocn hour approached they 

 managed to drive a lance into h'sside. 

 He dived instantly and upon coming 

 to the surface a stream of blood was 

 spouted upward to a height of three 

 or lour feet. Shortly afterwards they 

 fell in with a number of fishermen in 

 a couple of row-boats; they were tak- 

 en in tow also, and for five or si.x 

 hours the whale drew the four boats 

 along with undiminished speed. Sev- 

 eral times during the afternoon, as he 

 doubled on his trail, they thrust the 

 cruel lance deep into his side. The 

 whale seemed to act very cowardly; 

 he never acted on the aggressive, and 

 gave no evidence whatever of a desire 

 to attack his tormentors; on the con- 

 trary he would dive out of sight when- 

 ever a boat neared him. 



A peculiarity that was decidedly un- 

 pleasant to his pursuers was the nau- 

 seating odor that emanated from the 

 whale every time he spouted. So ter- 

 rible a stench the men had never ex- 

 perienced before, and they could only 

 account for it upon the theory that 

 the odor was possibly one of the ani- 

 mal's means of defense. This pecul- 

 iarity was referred to a number of 

 _years ago, by Dr. William H. Dall in 



the American Xiituralist. volume iii, 

 page 334, where he asked for further 

 information upon the subject from 

 New Bradford whalers. 



For five long days and nights these 

 intrepid toilers of the sea were contin- 

 uously c'li 'i'oyagc, three hundred feet 

 in the rear of the whale, almost con- 

 stantly towed hither and thither 

 through the intricacies of the islands 

 of the bay and The Narrows. On Sab- 

 bath evening the cetacean was render- 

 ed practically helpless by numerous 

 thrusts of lance and harpoon. A little 

 steamer that was near came to the 

 rescue at this time. It was made fast 

 to the huge carcass by one of the lines, 

 and proceeded to tow it to Ouarter- 

 master Harbor. This was not done 

 without protest on the part of the dy- 

 ing monster, however. He frequently 

 and vigorously manifested his disap- 

 proval, and put out his long flippers 

 and so retarded the progress of the 

 steamer that for a time it was nip and 

 tuck as to which would tow the other. 

 It is estimated that the whale had 

 towed the two boats and their occu- 

 pants at least two hundred miles be- 

 fore he finally succumbed and was 

 captured. 



At Quartermaster Harbor a large 

 barge was sunk upon the beach, and 

 the whale was floated over it at high 

 tide. When the tide receded the 

 monster was left upon the deck. All 

 the water was then pumped out of the 

 barge, and it was floated by the in- 

 coming tide — the whale on board! 

 On the day following the barge was 

 towed by a tug to the city dock, where 

 the colossal corpse was viewed by 

 thousands of people. 



The total length of the whale was 

 forty-five feet. It was particularly 

 notable for the immense size of its 

 head, which constituted at least one- 

 third the entire length of the body and 

 was quite narrow above, but very 

 broad below, where it consisted chief- 

 ly of a large under lip, which com- 

 pletely overlapped the upper lip. The 

 eyes were very small, and they were 



