WHALES AND WHALING 



boats are lowered. At the helm of each boat is an old 

 hand with whom most of the responsibility rests ; in the 

 bows is the harpooner, waiting to throw as soon as the 

 word of command is given. 



The harpoon calls for some description. It is about 

 three and a half feet long and has two parts the iron, 

 and the handle or shank, which carries a quarter of a mile 

 of rope. The iron tapers from the shank to the neck 

 above the barbs, then spreads out into a broad-barbed 

 spear-head, the outer edges of which are very keen, while 

 the shoulders are thick and blunt ; so that when once the 

 barbs are fleshed there is no pulling them out. 



Suddenly the coxswain sees a sort of broad whirlpool 

 or eddy spreading near the boat, and, at the same time, 

 there is a rumbling and an upheaving in the same 

 vicinity ; then a black muzzle and blow-holes appear on 

 the surface ; the whale has come up to breathe. Then up 

 shoots a double column of vapour from the blow-holes, 

 each column curving outwards and rising several yards in 

 the air; then the head and tail perhaps the whole 

 body become visible, only to sink again before a harpoon 

 could possibly be made to reach him. The whale does 

 not do things on a small scale ; when he breathes he 

 makes himself heard several hundred yards away, and, if 

 he is agitated, the sound is audible for a mile or two. 

 The " columns " are composed of the warm air from the 

 lungs of the animal, mingled with some amount of watery 

 vapour and particles of fatty matter, hence they are only 

 visible when the surrounding temperature is low, just as 

 we can only " see our own breath " on a cold day. The 



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