WHALE FISHERY. 431 



with another individual, the effect was totally different. 

 Alarmed with the extraordinary noise, and still more so, 

 when he reached the deck, with the appearance of all the 

 crew seated in the boats in their shirts, he imagined the 

 ship was sinking. He therefore endeavored to get into a 

 boat himself, but every one of them being fully manned, 

 he was always repulsed. After several fruitless endeav- 

 ors to gain a place among his comrades, he cried out, 

 with feelings of evident distress, 'What shall I do? 

 will none of you take rne in ? ' 



The first effort of a ' fast fish,' or whale that has been 

 struck, is to escape from the boat, by sinking under wa- 

 ter. After this, it pursues its course directly downward, 

 or reappears at a little distance, and swims with great 

 celerity, near the surface of the water, towards any 

 neighboring ice, among which it may attain an imagina- 

 ry shelter ; or it returns instantly to the surface, and 

 gives evidence of its agony, by the most convulsive 

 throes, in which its fins and tail are alternately displayed 

 in the air, and dashed into the water with tremendous 

 violence. The former behaviour, however, that is, to dive 

 towards the bottom of the sea, is so frequent, in com- 

 parison of any other, that it may be considered as the 

 general conduct of a fast fish. 



A whale struck near the edge of any large sheet of 

 ice, and passing underneath it, will sometimes run the 

 whole of the lines out of the boat, in the space of eight 

 or ten minutes of time. This being the ca=e, when the 

 ' fast boat' is at a distance, both from the ship and from 

 any other boat, it frequently happens that the lines are 

 all withdrawn before assistance arrives, and, with the fish, 

 entirely lost. In some cases, however, they are recov- 

 ered. To retard, therefore, as much as possible, the 

 flight of the whale, it is usual for the harpooner, who 

 strikes it, to cast one, two, or more turns of line round a 

 kind of post, called a ballard, which is fixed within ten 

 or twelve inches of the stern of the boat, for the purpose. 

 Such is the friction of the line, when running round the 

 ballard, that it frequently envelopes the harpooner in 

 smoke ; and if the wood were not repeatedly wetted, 

 would probably set fire to the boat. During the capture 



