PROCEEDINGS AFTEE A WHALE IS KILLED. 293 



The first operation pcrfoi-med on a dead whale, 

 is to secure it to a boat. This is easily effected, by 

 lashing it with a rope, passed several times through 

 two holes pierced in the tail, to the boat's bow. The 

 more difficult operation of freeing the whale from 

 the entanglement of the lines, is then attempted. 

 As the whale, when dead, alv/ays lies on its back or 

 on its side, the lines and harpoons are generally 

 far under water. When they are seen passing ob- 

 liquely downward, they are hooked with a grapnel, 

 pulled to the surface, and cut. But when they hang 

 perpendicular, or when they cannot be seen, they 

 are discovered by a process called " sweeping a 

 fish." This is performed by taking a part of a 

 whale-line in two different boats, ten or fifteen fa- 

 thoms asunder ; and while one boat lies at rest 

 supporting the end of the line, the other is rowed 

 round the fish, and the highf, or intermediate 

 part of the line, allowed to sink below the fish as it 

 proceeds, until each of the parts held in the two 

 boats are again brought together. Hence, when 

 one part of the line has made a circuit of the fish, it 

 must evidently enclose every other line or appen- 

 dage affixed to it. Thus enclosed, they are pul- 

 led up to the surface of the water, and each of 

 them cut at the splice of the foreganger ; leaving 

 the harpoon sticking in the fish with its foreganger 

 attached, and allowing the end of the line to sink, 

 and be hauled on board of the boat, from whence it 



