442 WHALE FISHERY. 



to break the line or draw the harpoon out. But when 

 the fish can be observed ' blowing,' in any of the holes 

 iu a field, the men travel over the ice and attack it with 

 lances, pricking it over the nose, to endeavor to turn it 

 back. This scheme, however, does not always answer 

 the expectation of the fishers, as frequently the fear of 

 his enemies acts so powerfully on the whale, that he 

 pushes forward to the interior, to his dying moment. 

 When killed, the same means are used as in pack fishing, 

 to sink it, but they do not always succeed ; for the har- 

 poon is frequently drawn out, or the line broken in the 

 attempt. If, therefore, no attempt to sink the fish avails, 

 there is scarcely any other practicable method of making 

 prize of it, (unless when the ice happens to be so thin 

 that it can be broken with a boat, a channel readily 

 cut in it with an ice saw,) than cutting the blubber away, 

 and dragging it piece by piece, across the ice to the ves- 

 sel, which requires immense labor and is attended with 

 vast loss of time. Hence, we have a sufficient reason 

 for avoiding such situations whenever fish can be found 

 elsewhere. As connected with this subject, I cannot 

 pass over a circumstance which occurred within my own 

 observation, and which excited my highest admiration. 



On the 8th of July, 1813, the ship Esk, lay by the 

 edge of a large sheet of ice, in which were several thin 

 parts, and some holes. Here a fish being heard blowing, 

 a harpoon, with a line connected to it, was conveyed 

 across the ice, from a boat on guard, and the harpooner 

 succeeded in striking the' whale at the distance of 350 

 yards from the verge. It dragged out ten lines, (2400 

 yards) and was supposed to be seen blowing in different 

 holes in the ice. After some time it happened to make 

 its appearance on the exterior, when a harpoon was 

 struck at the moment it was proceeding again beneath. 

 About a hundred yards from the edge it broke the ice 

 where it was a foot in thickness, with its crown, and re- 

 spired through the opening. It then determinately push- 

 ed forward, breaking the ice as it advanced, in spite of 

 the lances constantly directed against it. It reached, at 

 length, a kind of basin in the field, where it floated on 

 the surface of the water, without any incumbrance from 



