Harpoons, Lances, Guns, and Boats 227 



attached to iron corner rings, taking the places of 

 knots. The top edge of the net is held close to 

 the surface by barrels serving as buoys. . A whale 

 cruising along the shore gets his head through a 

 mesh, and instead of attempting to back out, he 

 rushes forward and entangles himself hopelessly 

 in the net. . . . From a lookout station on the 

 top of the headland a watcher signals the ap- 

 proach of whales, and the boats put off and lie 

 in wait. An entangled whale carries away the 

 net with a rush, but the great weight of the wire 

 rope and the drag of a long line of buoys impede 

 him, and instead of heading out to sea and going 

 away with the whole outfit, he thrashes about 

 and soon gets fins and flukes entangled, when the 

 boat approaches and the whalers finish the busi- 

 ness with the lance as in the old days." 



Plans for poisoning whales with prussic acid 

 were evolved in England in 1831. The Scientific 

 American of September 8, 1860, says: 



"A paper has just been published in England 

 by Professor Christison on the result of some 

 experiments suggested as long ago as 1831, by 

 W. & G. Young of Leith, for the capture of 



