WHALE FISHERY. 573 



gorous animal was killed. The capture and the flensing 

 occupied fortyeight hours. The fish was eleven feet bone, 

 (the length of the longest lamina of whale-bone,) and its 

 produce filled fortyseven butts, or twentythree and a half 

 ton casks with blubber. 



4 Excepting when it has its young under its protection, 

 the whale generally exhibits remarkable timidity of char- 



PROCEEDINGS AFTER A WHALE IS KILLED. 



' The first operation performed on a dead whale, is to 

 secure it to a boat. The more difficult operation of free- 

 ing the whale from the entanglement of the lines is at- 

 tempted. As the whale, when dead, always lies on its 

 back, or on its side, the lines and harpoons are generally 

 far under water. When they pass obliquely downward, 

 they are hooked with a grapnel, pulled to the surface and 

 cut. But when they hang perpendicularly, or cannot be 

 seen, they are discovered by a process, called " sweeping 

 a fish." On one occasion, I was engaged in the capture 

 of a fish, upon which, when to appearances dead, I leap- 

 ed, cut holes in the fins, and was in the act of passing a 

 rope through them, when the fish sunk beneath rny feet. 

 As soon as I observed this, I made a spring towards a 

 boat at the distance of three or four yards from me, and 

 caught hold of the gunwale. I was scarcely on board 

 before the fish began to move forward, turned entirely 

 over, reared its tail, and began to shake it with such pro- 

 digious violence, that it resounded through the air to the 

 distance of two or three miles. After two or three min- 

 utes of this violent exercise, it ceased, rolled over upon 

 its side, and died. 



'In the year 1816, a fish was lo all appearance killed. 

 The fins were partly lashed, the tail on the point of being 

 secured, the lines, excepting one, were cut away, the fish 

 lying meanwhile, as if dead. To the astonishment and 

 alarm, however, of the sailors, it revived, began to move, 

 and pressed forward in a convulsive agitation ; soon after 

 it sunk in the water to some depth, and then died. One 

 line remained attached to it, by which it was drawn up 



