264 cruise OF THE NEPTUNE 
only see ahead, and care is therefore taken to approach it from 
behind. 
The Scotch Whalers use guns, both for the harpoon and for 
the bomb, with which the whale is killed after the harpoon is 
fast. The harpoon has but one barb, and is so attached to the 
shank that when it has entered the skin and the line begins to 
pull, it swings at right-angles to the wound, and cannot be 
removed without cutting a large hole. The shank is about two 
feet long, and is split from the head to butt. In this split runs 
a ring to which the line is attached. The butt is a circular disc 
the diameter of the bore of the harpoon gun. This gun is 
mounted on a stanchion in the bow of the boat, and, working on 
a swivel, may be pointed in any direction. It is a muzzle-loader, 
and its discharge is insured by a double primer. when the gun 
is loaded, only the head of the harpoon and a short length of the 
stock protrude, sufficient for the ring with attached line. When 
it is fired the ring slips back to the butt and the head is buried 
deep into the side of the whale. 
The harpoon line is generally made of manilla, and has a cir- 
cumference of about three inches. It is carefully coiled in tubs 
between the seats, each tub holding a line 120 fathoms long. 
After the whale has been struck, the line is passed aft and a 
turn taken around a post in the stern, from which the line is 
payed out as required. The bomb gun has a bore about an inch 
in diameter, and fires an explosive shell, so arranged as to 
explode shortly after coming in contact with the body of the 
whale, and thus well inside. This gun is rarely used before the 
whale makes its first plunge, and frequently several dives are 
made before the boat can get close enough to give this coup de 
grace. 
As soon as life is extinct, the boats form in line and tow the 
whale, tail first, to the ship, where its tail is made fast to the 
quarter, and an effort is made to reach a harbour, where the car- 
