WHALES AND WHALING 



grumbles and eddies, and the boat, travelling her twelve 

 or thirteen knots an hour, is quickly in a position to 

 launch her deadly shaft. The gun, seventy-five pounds 

 in weight, four and a half feet long, including three feet 

 of barrel, is fixed on a swivel; it has a range of from 

 thirty to forty yards, and an ordinary pistol-handle. 

 From this is fired the " bomb-lance," an American inven- 

 tion, a sort of improvement on Devisme's balk foudroy- 

 ante. It is a cast-iron tube containing a small quantity 

 of gunpowder ; is pointed at one end, and at the other, 

 which is tethered, has a match or fuse which, when the 

 ball has penetrated into the whale's body, explodes the 

 powder. If by any chance this explosion should take 

 place in one of the lungs, the whale is dead instantly. 



Many improvements have been tried some carried into 

 effect on this deadly contrivance. A great many years 

 ago, when it was first used, a celebrated French scientist, 

 Dr. Thiercelin, tried the addition of various chemicals to 

 the powder in the bomb, and ten Newfoundland whales 

 shot in this manner died within spaces varying from four 

 to eighteen minutes. 



The still newer Norwegian improvement is a bomb with 

 a shank fitted to it ; the bomb enters the whale's body, 

 carrying with it this shank, explodes, inflicting dangerous 

 if not mortal injuries, and, as the animal moves forward, 

 the pull on the line to which the weapon is fastened sets 

 free two or four grips, or pins hinged at one end, which 

 embed themselves barb-like in the flesh, thereby fixing the 

 shank so that it cannot possibly move. 



As the boat comes within a few fathoms of the whale, 

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