WHALING 539 



spring, that would give a more continuous steady propelling 

 force. 



With a view probably to get over the difficulties enumerated 

 above, Messrs. Mason & Cunningham, the American makers, 

 brought out a gun with a very ingenious contrivance by which 

 the butt is allowed to recoil against rubber cushions, thus con- 

 verting the blow of the recoil into a push. The writer is not 

 aware what success attended this gun. 



The Americans have other most ingenious inventions in 

 the way of explosives, both as harpoons and lances, but there 

 is no space to notice them here. A description of most 

 of them will be found in the ' Fisheries of the United States,' 

 previously quoted in this chapter. 



The gun that appears to be most in use is one made by 

 Messrs. Greener, a muzzle-loader weighing from seventy to 

 seventy-five pounds. Messrs. Bland brought out a double- 

 barrel breechloading gun in 1885, one barrel to take a har- 

 poon and the other to discharge a shell which explodes by 

 concussion. By a neat arrangement of the barrels the shell 

 hits thirty inches from the spot the harpoon strikes. Peterhead 

 people know the gun, but they cannot give any instance of its 

 being tried on a fish. 



In 1884 the Norwegian ships had a very neat-looking breech- 

 loading gun, mounted on a carriage which, as well as the writer 

 recollects, was intended to take the recoil of the gun much in 

 the same plan as the American rubber cushions described 

 above. Their harpoons were much lighter than, and of different 

 make from, the Scotch irons. They are fitted with a single double- 

 ended movable barb, like two spoons joined together by the 

 handles, and attached in the centre to the end of the harpoon. 

 To prepare them for firing, one of the spoons is turned over 

 and lightly lashed with spun yarn to the harpoon, leaving the 

 other like an arrow-head to enter the fish. The moment 



