Sl'lTZHEKGEX AND GIIEENLAND. 119 



man, stands behind in the long-boat, and steers the boat ■with 

 an oar, and he takes great care and minds the rope to see 

 which way it runs out ; for if it doth go towards either side, 

 and doth not run just before over the stave, he so guides the 

 boat that it may run exactly out before. The whale runs 

 away with the long-boat as swift as the wind. If the har- 

 poonier can, he doth dart the harpoon just behind the spout- 

 hole of the whale, or in the thick fat of his back, where they 

 also do launce him, for that makcth him spout blood sooner 

 than if wounded in any other place, and dye sooner than if 

 you should launce them into their belly or through the guts. 

 The first lohale we caught spouted blood in such a quantity, 

 that the sea M-as tinged by it wherever he swam, whereunto 

 the maUemucJiS flock'd in great numbers, as I have men- 

 tioned before. They also launce the ichales near their privy- 

 parts, if they can come at it, for if they are run in there it 

 doth pain them very much ; nay, even when they are almost 

 dead, if you run in your launce thereabouts, it causeth the 

 whole body to tremble. For the most part they do not much 

 mind where they launce or push them, for there is no time 

 to take great deliberation, but they strike at him as well as 

 they can. But about the head the harpoon can do him no 

 hurt, because the fat is but very thin there upon the bones, 

 which the ivhales know as well as we ; for when they find 

 themselves in danger, so that they cannot escape the har- 

 poon, they rather leave their head than their back unde- 

 fended, for there the harpoon breaks out easier, and so the 

 v:hale gets away, like one that hath no mind to fight any 

 longer. The use of the harpoon is to tye, as it were, the 

 whales with them, that they may not run away. It is shaped 

 like an arrow before. It hath two sharp beards; they are 

 sharp at the edge and have a broad back, like a hatchet, that 

 is sharp before and blunt behind or on the back, so that it 

 may not cut with its back, for else it would tear out and all 

 your labour would be lost. The iron handle is thicker be- 



