CHAPTER XXVIII 



IF I had not been writing these notes I would have 

 harpooned a whale, I believe, for a few minutes after 

 getting on board the narwhals appeared again, and by 

 the time we were afloat and at the place they had appeared 

 at, we were too late. So, to be out of temptation and the 

 cold, I turned in at six A.M., after a long day of the un- 

 expected. First, open sea ! then the narwhals' appearance, 

 then the bears, and narwhals again. Quite good hunting 

 if it were not for the persistent mist that worries all of us 

 more or less and prevents our getting ahead. 



I hear this morning that after I had turned in, the mate 

 had a shot with the harpoon at a narwhal and missed. I 

 am sure our gun shoots short, possibly the powder is faulty. 

 I have known a man miss fifty shots in succession in the 

 Japanese seas, owing to this cause. He got more suitable 

 powder, and he killed sixty-nine whales without a miss. 



This is the old style of gun and harpoon which we have 

 on the Fonix. A is wire strop or grummet running in slot 

 in harpoon shaft. B is the " forego," a length of extra fine 

 and strong line attached to harpoon. C shows the line 

 going into the bottom of the boat. D, crutch turning in ; 

 E, a bollard or timber-head. 



On the Balsena, a Dundee and Greenland whaler I was 

 on for a long cruise, we coiled down eighteen hundred 

 yards of two-inch rope in each boat, extremely carefully 

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