SPITZBERGEX AM) GRKKXI.AND. 121 



it, and so the harpoon would come out and all the labour 

 would be lost ; which hath often happened, and we ourselves 

 lost one that way. The other long-boats that are towed be- 

 hmd, wherein the men look all before them, and sit still and 

 let the ichale draw them along : if the whale doth rowl upon 

 the ground, so that the long-boats or sloops do lye still, they 

 draw their lines in again by degrees, and the ropemaster 

 doth lay them down again in their proper jjlaces as they had 

 been laid before. ^Vhen they kill the toJiale with launces 

 they also pull their lines in again, until they come near to 

 the xcliale, yet at some distance, that the others may have 

 room to launce : but they must have great care, that all the 

 lines of every sloop may not be cut off together, because 

 some whales sink, and others do swim even with the water 

 when they are dead, which nobody can tell beforehand whe- 

 ther they will do one or the other. The fat ones do not sink 

 presently after they are fresh killed, but the lean ones sink 

 immediately after they are dead, but after some few days they 

 come up again and swim on the water : but it would be too 

 long a while for a man to stay till he cometh up again, and 

 the sea is never so quiet that one can stay long in the same 

 place, and where the sea is quiet and without waves, there 

 the stream doth carry the ships and the ice along together, 

 so that we should be forced to leave the lohale unto others, 

 that would find him dead some days after. 'Tis true this is 

 the easiest way to catch whales, but it is very nasty and 

 stinking work, for long and white maggots grow in their 

 flesh ; they are flat, like nnto worms that breed in men's 

 bellies, and they smell Avorse than anything I ever smelt in 

 my life. The longer the ichale lies dead in the water, the 

 higher he doth swim above it ; some swim a foot high above 

 the water, others to their middle, and then they do burst 

 easily, and give a very great report. They begin imme- 

 diately to stink, and this encreascs hourly, and their flesh 

 boils and ferments like unto beer or ale, and holes break in 



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