156 WHALING AND BEAR-HUNTING 



We chased it for hours ; there is no good in chasing one 

 and then rushing off to the next that appears ; by a fluke 

 you might strike across the stranger's course and get him on 

 the rise, but the best plan is to study the movements of the 

 whale of your choice, and by judiciously following it learn 

 its movements so as to cut across its course and get in your 

 harpoon at the right time. 



It is difficult to describe the intense excitement of chasing 

 whales, and the more so when your interest in it is even 

 more than the hunting when you have shares to make 

 profit on, for friends interested in the bag. 



At about seven-thirty we saw the whales, and by nine we 

 had been three times almost within harpooning distance, say 

 within forty yards, when always the whale " tailed up," and 

 took his final dive. A whale comes to the surface, blows 

 and takes in breath, several times, just going below surface 

 between each blast. After it feels refreshed it goes below 

 on its business for a dive of, say, twenty minutes or half-an- 

 hour, and may appear any distance from the spot it went 

 down at. In this last dive it raises the after part of its body 

 with a slow elevation, a sort of sad farewell to the hunter. 

 Certain whales, such as the sperm and narwhal, and Right 

 whales, lift the whole tail out, but others, such as the finners 

 we hunt off Shetland, only show the ridge in front of the tail ; 

 and seldom show their tails or flukes until they are harpooned. 



One thing that comforted us greatly was that we knew 

 from this whale's movements that though he avoided our 

 treading on his heels, as it were, he was never scared or 

 gallied by our engine or propeller's beat. 



It would take volumes to describe the different ways of 

 each kind of whale. The sperm whale usually feeds in 

 something of a circle, so you keep cruising round the inside 

 of the circle. 



For hours we chased, very seldom speaking, eating brown 

 bread, and drinking coffee, standing on deck, sticking to 

 the neighbourhood of our first acquaintance, balancing the 

 prospects of our expedition's failure or success on the way 

 this one whale took our approach. Sceptics had told us 

 the beat of our motor would frighten a whale more than 



