ILLUSTHATIVE ANECDOTES. S77 



line round the bollard, was enveloped in smoky ob- 

 scurity. At length, when the ship was scarcely 

 100 yards distant, we perceived preparations for quit- 

 ting the boat. The sailors' ^ca-jackets were cast 

 upon the adjoining ice, — the oars were throv^n dov^u, 

 — the crew leaped overboard, — the bow of the boat 

 was buried in the water, — the stern rose perpendi- 

 cular, and then majestically disappeared. The bar- 

 pooner having caused the end of the line to be fas- 

 tened to the iron-ring at the boat's stem, was the 

 means of its loss '-•" ; and a tongue of the ice, on 

 which was a depth of several feet of water, kept the 

 boat, by the pressure of the line against it, at such a 

 considerable distance as prevented the crew from leap- 

 ing upon the floe. Some of them were, therefore, put 

 to the necessity of swimming for their preservation, 

 but all of them succeeded in scrambling upon the ice, 

 and were taken on board of the ship in a few mi- 

 nutes afterwards. 



I may here observe, that it is an uncommon cir- 

 cumstance for a fish to require more than two 

 boats' lines in such a situation ; — none of our har- 

 pooners, therefore, had any scruple in leaving the 

 fast-boat, never suspecting, after it had received the 



* " Giving a whale the boat/' as the voluntary sacrifice of a 

 boatistermedjisa schemenotuntrequently practised by the fisher 

 when in want of line. By submitting to this risk, he expects 

 to gain the fish, and still has the chance of recovering his boat 

 iind its materials. It is only practised in open ice or at fields. 



