THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN. 165 



At this moment the captain and old Ben occupied the 

 stern of the boat, and in the perilous moment I was just mad 

 enough to enjoy the expectant look with which the two old 

 whalemen awaited the arrival of the oncoming flukes. For- 

 tunately for us all, the blow was delayed a moment, and when 

 the thundering concussion came, it cleared our boat by a 

 few feet. 



The other boats were out of sight, and the ship's hull was 

 dimly, seen to leeward. Yet for two hours more the whale 

 ran and fought with redoubled energy. The captain got 

 long darts with the lance, but to no good effect ; the iron 

 drew, and the victorious whale passed away from us. We 

 were fagged and dead-beat ; almost worn to death, and we 

 did not reach the ship until long after night-fali. The other 

 boats picked up the mate's crew, no one having been hurt. 



On the following day the captain did handsomely by his 

 bow-oar by remarking to me that an officer in the boat nev- 

 er meant half he said, and that such scolding was his habit. 

 " But," he solemnly added, " never again, under any possible 

 circumstances, make a line fast between the boat and a whale. 

 Why, if that mad whale had gone down, the boat would have 

 been a quarter of a mile under water in less than a minute, 

 and half the crew might have been with it !" Bow-oar sug- 

 gested that it was better to be under water than live under 

 a charge of cowardice. The old man overlooked this impu- 

 dence, and turned on his heel. Thus I have shown that the 

 harpoon is to fasten to the whale, the line to keep communi- 

 cation with it, and the lance is the instrument by which it is 

 killed, a spade being sometimes used to check a running 

 whale. 



I have heard of a modern invention to kill whales, in the 

 form of a short gun, fired from the shoulder of the boat- 

 header. The invention is known as the " bomb-lance." It 

 consists of a tube of iron about eighteen inches long, sharp 



