CHAPTER XXVI 



NO whales yet, never a blow, no chance to use our 

 harpoon-guns from the ship's bows or from the boats, 

 so we keep their covers on. What patience is needed 

 for whaling ! Two seasons ago a friend of mine, a captain 

 of a Dundee whaler, was up this north-east coast of Greenland 

 with a big crew for three months, and got only one whale and 

 one bear. Then, with luck, you may get several in one day, 

 I have never yet seen more than three killed in the twenty- 

 four hours ; but I have done nine months' whaling with three 

 whalers and killed none ! That is rather a record. 



. . . The wind is easterly, the worst we could have for 

 getting in to North-East Greenland, for it is driving the floes 

 inshore. We are once more anchored to a floe and wait till 

 the weather clears, for it is too windy and misty to make 

 good progress. We are still about seventy-five degrees 

 north and a hundred and thirty miles from the coast, and 

 there is an unusual amount of ice between us and it, so we 

 may not reach it after all. 



Whales at last ! Narwhals ! the fellows with long ivory 

 horns. The steward spotted them first as he was cleaning 

 a dish at the galley door ; he came running aft with a blush 

 of excitement on his face, and we saw their backs, three of 

 them, and dashed for the whale-boat, but before we got 

 away the whales had disappeared ! It was ever thus. They 

 are the most illusive whales. " A uni, a uni," I have heard 

 our Dundee whalers shout down south in the Antarctic, and 

 they too disappeared without scathe. 



But are there narwhals in the South, you ask. Well, this 

 is all I can say, our men said they saw them. I did not. 

 Their word " uni " stands for unicorn or narwhal. 



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