WHALE FISHERY. 445 



ice more crowded or more difficult of access than anoth- 

 " er, it commonly retreats thither for refuge. In such 

 cases, the sailors find much difficulty in getting to it with 

 their boats ; having to separate many pieces of ice before 

 they can pass through between them. But when it 

 is not practicable to move the pieces, and when 

 they cannot travel over them, they must either drag the 

 boats across the intermediate ice, or perform an extensive 

 circuit, before they can reach the opposite side of the 

 close ice into which the whale has retreated. A second 

 harpoon, in this case, as indeed in all others, is a material 

 point. They proceed to lance whenever a second har- 

 poon is struck, and strike more harpoons as the auxiliary 

 boats progressively arrive at the place. 



Fishing in Stowis. Except in situations sheltered 

 from the sea by ice, it would be alike useless and pre- 

 sumptuous to attempt to kill whales during a storm. 

 Cases, however, occur, wherein fish that weie struck 

 during fine weather, in winds which do not prevent the 

 boats from plying about, remain entangled, but unsub- 

 dued, after the commencement of a storm. Sometimes 

 the capture is completed, at others, the fishers are under 

 the necessity of cutting the lines, and allowing the fish 

 to escape. Sometimes, when they have succeeded in 

 killing it, and in securing it during the gale, with a haw- 

 ser to the ship, they are enabled to make a prize of it on 

 the return of moderate weather ; at others, after having 

 it to appearance secured, by means of a sufficient rope, 

 the dangerous proximity of a pack of ice constrains 

 them to cut it adrift and abandon it, for the preservation 

 of their vessel. After thus being abandoned, it becomes 

 the prize of the first who gets possession of it, though it 

 be in the face of the original captors. A storm com- 

 mencing while the boats are engaged with an entangled 

 fish, sometimes occasions serious disasters. Generally, 

 however, though they suffer the loss of the fish, and per- 

 haps some of their boats and materials, yet the men 

 escape with their lives. 



Fishing in Foggy Weather. The fishery in stoims, 

 in exposed situations, can never be voluntary, as the case 

 only Mnpens when a storm arises subsequent to the time 



