HUNTING THE NARWHAL AND THE WHALE. 243 



In the afternoon I had thrown a lance into one of these 

 savage fellows, while it was busy in tearing off a piece from 

 one of the heads ; as I was some distance off, the lance drop- 

 ped short of the mark, and only pierced the thick part of the 

 greedy monster's tail. The shark immediately left its hold of 

 the head, and as the lance came out, swam some hundred 

 yards off; but it soon returned, and fastened on the head again, 

 tore it off, and disappeared with it before I had time to pull 

 up the lance. 



A difficulty now arose in fastening the blubber-hook on the 

 head in the dark, and the second boat-steerer had made several 

 unsuccessful attempts, when the boat-header called out for a 

 blubber lantern, and soon afterward a most singular torch 

 was brought forward. It consisted of iron hoops about four 

 inches through ; and this fire basket was filled with thin split 

 wood, and stripes of greasy blubber. The flame soon caught 

 the oil, and blazing to a height of nearly three feet, lit up the 

 dark ocean for a distance of about thirty yards giving the 

 dancing waves a singular transparent hue, and throwing a 

 wild unearthly light over the figure of the reckless sailor who 

 knelt on the dark slimy surface of the whale's head, his left 

 hand firmly grasping the open blubber, and his right arm 

 slung round the heavy iron hook to lift it into the right place. 



What was that light streak shooting past the rolling mass 

 just now? Only a shark, frightened by the gleaming torch, 

 and returning to get another bite at the fish, his lawful prey ; 

 for is it not the wild and fiery master of the deep. This shark 

 held on by the whale's head till it rose, lifted by the power- 

 ful windlass, nearly out of the water, when it left its hold 

 with the piece of the torn-off blubber between its teeth. 



" The next morning the mast-heads were manned again, 

 and not having made any head-way from the neighborhood 

 where the whales seemed to have their feeding-ground, the 

 men had been hardly an hour aloft when the call. " There 

 she blows !" but this time over to the windward; again set 



