SPITZBERGEN AND GRKENLAXD. 125 



self out of the water, he eommonly doth strike about with his 

 tail and finns, that the water dasheth up like dust. A long- 

 boat he values no more than dust, for he can beat it all into 

 shatters at a blow : but a great ship is too hard for him, and 

 if he strikes against it with his tail, he feels it more than the 

 ship, for he doth so paint the ship with his own blood that it 

 maketh him very feeble. A good steersman is next iinto the 

 harpoonier most useful in the sloop ; he steers with one oar, 

 and doth look out before : the other four men turn their back 

 to the head and look towards the stern, therefore doth the 

 steersman and harpoonier always cry, "Rgic on^'' or "Strike,"''' 

 that is to say, row near to the ichale, or else keep farther off. 

 The launces have a wooden stick or handle above two fa- 

 thoms long, or somewhat shorter than a pikestaff; the iron 

 thereof is commonly a fathom long, and pointed before like 

 unto a pike : it is made of steel or tough iron, that it may 

 bend without breaking. For after you have made a deep 

 hole in his body with your launces, you poke into it with 

 them one way and the other way, as they do when they poke 

 for eels ; but if he doth get one or more out of your hands, 

 you take another, for every sloop hath at least five, six, or 

 seven, and yet sometimes he has them all out of three, four, 

 or more boats sticking in his body. 



CHAP. IX. 



What tliei] do vnth the Dead Whale. 



After the ivhale is killed they cut off his tail ; some keep 

 the tail and finns, and hang them up at the outside of their 

 ship, for that defends them from the ice when it presseth 

 upon the ship ; the tail hinders the boat and its course, be- 



