26s WHALK-FISHERY. 



to separate many pieces of ice before they can pass 

 through between them. But when it is not prac- 

 ticable to move the pieces, and when they cannot- 

 travel over them, they must either drag the boats 

 across the intermediate ice, or perform an extensive 

 circuit, before they can reach the opposite side of the 

 close ice, into which the whale has retreated. 



A second harpoon in this case, as indeed in all 

 others, is a material point. They proceed to lance 

 whenever the second harpoon is struck, and strike 

 more harpoons as the auxiliary boats progressively 

 arrive at the place. 



When the fish is killed, it is often at a distance 

 from the ship, and so circumstanced, that the ship 

 cannot get near it. In such cases, the fish must be 

 totvcd by the boats to the ship ; an operation which, 

 among crowded ice, is most troublesome and labo- 

 rious. 



4. l^ay Ice Fishing. — Bay ice constitutes a situa- 

 tion which, though not particularly dangerous, is yet, 

 on the whole, one of the most troublesome in which 

 whales are killed. In sheets of bay ice, the whales 

 find a very effectual shelter ; for so long as the ice will 

 not " carry a man," they cannot be approached 

 with a boat, without producing such a noise, as most 

 certainly warns them of the intended assault. And 

 if a V hale, by some favourable accident, were struck, 

 the difficulties of completing the capture are ahvays 

 numerous, and sometimes prove insurmountable. 

 The whale having free loco-motion beneath the ice, 



