22 The Story of the New England Whalers 



off to stranded ships in twenty-eight-foot surf 

 boats, built with all the strength that modern 

 skill and the best of tools can give them; and 

 provided, moreover, with air-tight tanks at each 

 end that will keep them afloat even when a hole 

 in the bottom lets the water in. The life savers 

 deserve all the credit they get, and more too; but 

 the Indian, let it be remembered, went afloat on 

 the ocean in a canoe, the frame of which was 

 tied together with sinew, the planking composed 

 of the bark of a tree, and the cracks calked with 

 the fat of animals mixed with spruce gum. 



Two kinds of whales were commonly hunted 

 by the Indians. One was the black fish that 

 came in large schools to such sheltered waters as 

 were to be found under the point of Cape Cod 

 and elsewhere along shore. To kill these was not 

 a difficult matter. The other kind was the right 

 whale. In two respects, at least, the right whales 

 were of a character to try the nerves of white 

 men as well as of red. Thus, as they swam to 

 and fro, with their lips up, sucking in the food 

 that floated upon the surface of the sea, the 

 spectacle was so horrifying that the officers in the 



