WHALING AND BEAR-HUNTING 77 



the sea ; Henriksen, unlike the average whaler, does not 

 despise things aesthetic ; on the contrary, he takes delighted 

 interest in Nature's picture-book. As we painted, and dis- 

 cussed how to get this effect, and the other, there came from 

 the crow's nest the welcome cry of 4 ' A blast ! ' ' and the response 

 from the bridge : " How far ? " We were bowling south with 

 a blustering, following wind, really too rough for whaling, for 

 the sea made us yaw this way and that. However, there 

 was no choice ; there was half-a-chance and it was not to be 

 missed. It did not turn out to be a long chase ; it was a 

 solitary finner and we swung after his first blow a mile to 

 port and at his third blow were within a quarter of a mile. 

 Then he sounded, and in twenty minutes came up again and 

 blew a twenty-foot blast of steam into the bright windy air. 

 Again we pursued and were nearly in shot at his second 

 blast, and were following him north against the sea with the 

 foam coming splendidly over us at every dive, making one 

 fairly gasp with excitement and cold, but feet and legs held 

 good ; they shake a little, we notice, whilst we look on at 

 another gunner. We were all wrong at the third rise ; a 

 mile out and very disappointed, then, to our astonishment, 

 three minutes after appeared a blast to leeward, and the 

 huge, plum-coloured shoulders of a leviathan coming right 

 across our course the same whale or another we could not 

 tell. A turn of the engine then " Saghte " (Slowly), and we 

 surged ahead, rising and falling on the far too big waves. 

 Then a strange and rare sight came; owing to the posi- 

 tion of the sun, the light shone right into the banks of 

 waves, and inside one and along it, we obtained a splendid 

 full-length view of the whale under the greeny water looking 

 almost yellow and white. We have only on very few occasions 

 obtained such a complete view of a whale, when looking 

 down on one, but in this case, it was a complete side view. 

 Up we rose in a thirty-foot surge, and the top of his dark shiny 

 head appeared, up rushed the blast, and over went his enor- 

 mous back. How we wished it was higher out of the water. 

 As we plunged down a wave its back showed at its highest, 

 and we pulled the trigger, aiming almost uphill as we plunged 

 our bows under. It was a longer shot than usual, about 



