SPITZBElUiKN AND GREENLAND. 117 



to Spitzbergen ; for there, at the shoar, we see great plenty 

 of the small sea-snails, and perhaps some other small fish. 

 They are caught after the following manner. When they 

 see whales, or when they hear them blow or spout, they call 

 in to the ship, " FallifalV; then every body must be ready 

 to get into the long-boat that he doth belong to, commonly 

 six men go into every long-boat, and sometimes seven, 

 according as the long-boats are in bigness ; they all of them 

 row until they come very near unto the icliale ; then doth 

 the harpoonier arise, who sits always before in the boat, 

 where the harpoon, or the sharp iron made like unto an 

 arrow fixed to a stick, doth also lye on the foremost board of 

 the long-boat, which the seamen call the staffcn, that is, the 

 broad piece of wood that cometh up from before the boat 

 from the bottom, and stands up higher than all the rest. 

 But v.'hen the ichale runs streight down towards the bottom 

 underneath the water, then he doth draw the rope very hard, 

 so that the upper part of the long-boat is even with the sur- 

 face of the water ; nay, he would certainly pull it down to 

 the bottom if they should not give him rope enough. This 

 he doth commonly where the sea is deepest ; and this doth 

 require an incredible force to draw so many hundred fathoms 

 of rope under water. This gives me occasion to remember, 

 that when we, on the 27th oi April 1672, did fling out our 

 lead near St. Kilda, behind Scotland, into the sea, where it 

 was one hundred and twenty fathom deep when the weather 

 was calm, and when Ave would pull it up again it was so 

 heavy that twenty men had much to do to heave it. The 

 harpoonier taketh his harpoon, and holds the point or the 

 iron thereof, together with the fore-runner, towards his left 

 hand ; this is a rope or line of five or seven fathom long, 

 about an inch thick, and is laid up round like a ring, that 

 it may not hinder the harpoon when it is flung ; for as soon 

 as he doth fling or dart the harpoon this line follows, for it is 

 more plyable than the rest that are fastened to it, wherewith 



