264: CRUISE OF THE NEPTUNE 



only see ahead, and care is therefore taken to approach it from 

 behind. 



The Scotch whalers use guns, both for the harpoon and for 

 the bomb, with which the whale is killed after the harpoon is 

 fast. The harpoon has but one barb, and is so attached to the 

 shank that when it has entered the skin and the line begins to 

 pull, it swings at right-angles to the wound, and cannot be 

 removed without cutting a large hole. The shank is about two 

 feet long, and is split from the head to butt. In this split runs 

 a ring to which the line is attached. The butt is a circular disc 

 the diameter of the bore of the harpoon gun. This gun is 

 mounted on a stanchion in the bow of the boat, and, working on 

 a swivel, may be pointed in any direction. It is a muzzle-loader, 

 and its discharge is insured by a double primer. When the gun 

 is loaded, only the head of the harpoon and a short length of the 

 stock protrude, sufficient for the ring with attached line. When 

 it is fired the ring slips back to the butt and the head is buried 

 deep into the side of the whale. 



The harpoon line is generally made of manilla, and has a cir- 

 cumference of about three inches. It is carefully coiled in tubs 

 between the seats, each tub holding a line 120 fathoms long. 

 After the whale has been struck, the line is passed aft and a 

 turn taken around a post in the stern, from which the line is 

 payed out as required. The bomb gun has a bore about an inch 

 in diameter, and fires an explosive shell, so arranged as to 

 explode shortly after coming in contact with the body of the 

 whale, and thus well inside. This gun is rarely used before the 

 whale makes its first plunge, and frequently several dives are 

 made before the boat can get close enough to give this coup de 

 grace. 



As soon as life is extinct, the boats form in line and tow the 

 whale, tail first, to the ship, where its tail is made fast to the 

 quarter, and an effort is made to reach a harbour, where the car- 



