WHALES AND WHALING 



It goes without saying that a great deal depends on where 

 he is hit ; if a motor nerve or important muscle is badly 

 injured he may try to make a hurried escape, and yet be 

 deterred from doing so by the pain which his first instinc- 

 tive motion causes. Thus there may be time for a second 

 harpoon, either from the same man or the cox, or even 

 from another boat ; for, badly hurt or not, the animal 

 generally hesitates for a few moments before deciding on 

 a course of action. 



Suddenly it plunges under keep clear of the rope if 

 you value your life. A trawl tow-warp is bad enough to 

 get entangled in ; but if you should be caught in the coil 

 of a harpoon-line you are in for a journey of a couple of 

 hundred yards or more in the direction of the bottom. 

 The line, which is probably coiled in a couple of tubs, 

 runs out at terrific speed till you begin to think that this 

 part of the sea is bottomless. But after a time the rate 

 is reduced till the coil scarcely seems to move ; the rope 

 hangs slack, and so far perpendicular that you find your- 

 self wondering whether the whale intends coming up im- 

 mediately under you. Another move of the line ; no 

 more runs out, but the part that hangs over the bow is 

 taking a horizontal direction, and, a hundred yards or so 

 to leeward, a similar whirlpool to that which you noticed 

 before is forming; a bluish patch rises above water and 

 moves forward at a moderate pace till the line is taut 

 again ; the whale has come to the top, still conscious that 

 something is sticking into it and cannot be got rid of, but 

 not yet prepared to find a boat-load of men hitched to 

 that something. 



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