HISTORY OF THE WHALE. 99 



bone, which is abandoned either to sink or to be devoured 

 by the birds and sharks, and bears, wKich duly attend on 

 such occasions for their share of the prey. 



It will be readily believed that none of the proceedings 

 which we have now been considering are free from nu- 

 merous perils. In a high sea the flensing itself is often 

 difficult or impossible ; and those upon the body of the fish 

 are exposed to considerable risk. Sometimes they fall in- 

 to the whale's mouth, at the imminent hazard of being 

 drowned. In the case of a heavy swell, they are drench- 

 ed, and often washed over by the surge. Occasionally 

 they have their ropes broken, and are wounded by each 

 other's knives. Mr. Scorseby mentions an instance of a 

 man, who, after the flensing was completed, happened 

 to have his foot attached by a hook to the carcass, when it 

 was inadvertently let go. He caught hold of the gunwale 

 of the boat, but the whole immense mass was now suspen- 

 ded by his body, occasioning the most excruciating torture, 

 and even exposing him to the risk of being torn asunder ; 

 when his companions contrived afresh to hook the carcass 

 with a grapnel, and brought it back to the surface. 



In the account which we have presented of the capture, 

 all circumstances are supposed to be favorable ; but often 

 it is the very reverse. A storm may arise, and a fog often 

 envelopes the whole operations ; immense islands or floes, 

 i. e., masses of field-ice, may be impelled upon them by the 

 tempest, and with such velocity as to overwhelm them in 

 a moment, or a frost may make them fast in its hard and 

 icy grasp. It is such incidents as these which make this 

 employment one of the most trying and hazardous that 

 can be pursued : while they occasionally lead to the most 

 extraordinary adventures ; as examples of which we sub- 

 join a very few narratives of facts. 



The whale itself, though for the most part undesignedly, 

 is the cause of the greatest number of accidents which 

 occur. Injuries are often sustained by entanglement with 

 the lines. A sailor belonging to the John of Greenock, in 1818, 



