194 MARINE MAMMALS OF THE NORTH-WESTERN COAST. 
so that fling it which way you will, it doth fall always upon the point. Through 
this hole cometh a piece of packthread, wherewith the end of the fore-runner is 
fastened to the handle or stock of the harpoon, but this is soon torn off, and it 
serveth for nothing more after the harpoon sticks in the body of the whale ; 
neither is the wooden handle of any further use, and so it cloth soon come out 
from the iron. When the whale is struck with the harpoon, all the other long- 
boats row out before, and take notice which way the line doth stand, and some- 
times they pull at the rope or line. If it is stiff and heavy, the whale doth draw 
it still with his might; but if it doth hang loose, so that the long-boat is before 
and behind equally high out of the water, then the men pull in the rope again, 
and the rope -giver layeth it down in very good order, round, and one row above 
the other, that if the whale should draw on again, he may have it ready to give 
him without being entangled. Here is also this to be observed, that if the whale 
runs upon the level, they must not give him too much rope, for if he should turn 
and wind himself much and often about, he might easily wind the rope about a 
rock or heavy stone, and so fasten it to it, and so the harpoon would come out, 
and all the labour would be lost, which hath often hapnecl, and we ourselves lost 
one that way. The other long-boats that are towed behind, wherein the men look 
all before them, and sit still, and let the whale draw them • along. If the whale 
doth rowl upon the ground, so that the long-boats or sloops lye still, they draw 
their lines in again by degrees, and the rope -master doth lay them down again in 
their proper places, as they had been laid before. When they kill the whale with 
launces, they also pull their lines in again, untill they come near to the whale, yet 
at some distance, that the others may have room to launce. But they must have 
great care, that all the lines of every sloop may not be cut off together, because 
some whales sink, and others do swim even with the water when they are dead, 
which nobody can tell beforehand, whether they will do one or the other. The 
fat ones do not sink presently after they are fresh killed, but the lean ones sink 
immediately after they are dead, but after some few days they come up again, and 
swim on the water. But it would be too long a while for a man to stay till he 
cometh up again, and the sea is never so quiet that one can stay long in the same 
place ; and where the sea is quiet, and without waves, there the stream doth carry 
the ships and the ice along together, so that we should be forced to leave the 
whale unto others, that would find him dead some days after. 'Tis true, this is the 
easiest way to catch whales, but it is very nasty and stinking work ; for long and 
white maggots grow in their flesh, they are flat, like unto worms that breed in 
men's bellies, and they smell worse than ever I smelt anything in my life. The 
