THE AMERICAN WHALE-FISHERY. 191 
sometimes to tell more than they had. "When it is windy, that they could not 
hear one another, they waved their hats to signifie the number caught. But when 
they have their full freight of whales, they put up their great flag as a sign 
thereof; then if any hath a message to be sent, he delivers it to them. On the 
12th of July we had a gloomy sun — sunshine all day. We saw but very few 
whales more, and those we did see were quite wild, that we could not come near 
them. That night it was so dark and foggy that we could hardly see the ship's 
length. We might have got sea-horses enough, but we were afraid of losing our 
ships, for we had examples enough of them that had lost their ships, and could 
not come to them again, but have been forced to return home in other ships. 
When after this manner any have lost their ships, and can not be seen, they dis- 
charge a cannon from the ship, or sound the trumpets or hautboys, according as 
they are provided in their ships, that the men that are lost may find their ships 
again." 
As to the mode of capturing and flaying the mysticetus, as well as the process 
of extracting the oil from the blubber, the narrator gives the following description, 
under the headings respectively of "How they Catch the Whale," "What they do 
with the Dead Whale," and "Of the Trying out of the Train- oyl from the Fat." 
"First, it is to be observ'd, that when it's like to be a good year to catch 
whales in, there is many ichite-jish to be seen before: but where we see many 
seales, there we do not expect to meet with many whales; for they say, that they 
eat up the food of the whale, wherefore the whales will not stay in such empty 
places, but go to find out better, and so come to Spitzbergen, for there, at the 
shoar, we see great plenty of the small sea -snails, and perhaps some other small 
fish. They are caught after the following manner : When they see whales, or 
when they hear them blow or spout, they call in to the ship, Fall, fall; then 
every body must be ready to get into the long-boat that he doth belong to; 
commonly six men go into every long-boat, and sometimes seven, according as 
the long-boats are in bigness; they all of them row until they come very near 
unto the whale ; then doth the harpoonier arise, who sits always before in the 
boat, where the harpoon, or the sharp iron made like unto an arrow fixed to a 
stick, doth also lie on the foremost board of the long-boat, which the seamen 
call the Staffen, that is, the broad piece of wood that cometh up before the boat 
from the bottom, and stands up higher than all the rest. But when the whale 
runs strait down towards the bottom underneath the water, then he doth draw 
the rope very hard, so that the upper part of the long-boat is even with the 
surface of the water ; nay, he would certainly pull it down to the bottom, if they 
