53 MODERN SEA FISHING 



be in a good position to meet them going north along the 

 edge of the pack. The end of April, May and June appear to 

 be the months when most fish are taken, as they are rarely 

 seen after the first days of July. 



In 1883 the price of the oil was about 657. per ton, and 

 this, paying very well, induced the Scotch whaling ports and the 

 Norwegians to fit out a number of ships for the ensuing 

 year, consisting of vessels of all sizes, from schooners to the 

 ordinary whaler. To give an idea of the number employed, we, 

 leaving Lerwick on May 7, 1884, in my yacht Kara, took out 

 letters for about twenty British ships to North Greenland, as 

 the fishing grounds from Iceland to Spitzbergen are termed by 

 the whalers. These fish are taken much in the same way as the 

 Greenland whale, except that the gun harpoon is alone used, 

 their motions, as a rule, being too quick for a hand harpoon. 



There is not the same risk attached to their capture, for 

 their tails are not the formidable weapons wielded by the former 

 fish, indeed the writer does not recollect a single instance in 

 which a fish injured the boat with her tail ; but they take line 

 rapidly, and care must be used that the boat is not dragged 

 down. Smaller boats, containing five men and four lines, are 

 also employed for their capture. They generally roll something 

 like porpoises, head, back fin, and tail appearing in succession, 

 though at times they will play on the top of the water, and 

 occasionally sail majestically round the ship. The writer once 

 saw seven ' Chancy Johns ' pass round the ship nearly in line, 

 at a slow pace, blowing like so many locomotives leaving an 

 engine shed. 



The usual mode of capture is either to dodge slowly about 

 where the water is the proper colour (a darkish blue, almost 

 black in appearance), and the moment fish are seen, heave to 

 and drop a couple of -boats, placing one somewhere ahead of 

 the ship, and the other astern ; or heave to, and leave a boat 



