282 WHALING AND BEAR-HUNTING 



coiled down in three divisions, one in the bows, one amid- 

 ships, and another at the stern. After using the modern 

 heavy Finner tackle from a small steamer these old lines seem 

 to be very light tackle in contrast. Last year we coiled 

 down five-inch ropes (i.e. five in circumference) three hundred 

 and sixty fathoms to port, three hundred and sixty to star- 

 board, each line filling a bulkhead of, say, eight feet by eight, 

 and each line weighing about a ton, and the harpoons weighed 

 nearly two hundredweights. To play a fish of, say, ninety 

 tons that can snap such a cable or tow your hundred-foot 

 steamer at eight to fifteen knots up wind, with the two- 

 hundred-horse-power engine doing eight knots astern, is some 

 sport. But the thin lines we have here are quite adequate 

 for this Balean whale of the Arctic, for the Right whale as a 

 rule does not sprint and it floats when it is dead, and usually, 

 on being harpooned, dives deep and stays down till it ex- 

 hausts itself from want of air, and so the lancing is easy. 

 The rorquals go off at great speed nearer the surface. 



Does the reader know about the great Svend Foyn, who 

 invented the harpoon for the great finners of modern whaling ? 

 He was a man of remarkable determination and strength 

 of character. Many yarns have I heard about him. 



This is one of them : 



To show how his new harpoon worked, he took his wife 

 on a trial trip great man as he was, he made mistakes, 

 and had his limitations. He soon made fast to a great 

 finner with his new harpoon and line, and was he not a proud 

 man ? But the harpoon struck the whale too far aft and did 

 not disable it. It took out the whole line and with a rush 

 took their little steamer in tow at a terrible speed out of the 

 fiord for twelve hours at fifteen knots against a gale, and 

 they were steaming seven knots astern with a sail up to help 

 to stop the speed. 



" Let go, let go," prayed the wife, " I am seek, I am 

 afraid." "No, no," said Foyn, "I vill never let go. I 

 vill show you veech is de strongest my vill or de vill of de 

 beasts," and he held on and finally got the whale lanced. 

 But it was an awful fight. When they towed the whale 

 ashore in triumph his wife was nearly dead, and she said : 



