324 APPARATUS FOR FISHING. 



made us all more or less familiar with the dangers and 

 difficulties attendant on whaling, one of the most serious 

 arising from the necessity for the very close approach of 

 the harpooner to the whale, so as to allow of the harpoon 

 being thrown by him with sufficient force to obtain a good 

 hold in the animal. Having secured this object, the next 

 is to kill the whale as quickly as possible. The hand 

 harpoon of the original form with a simple arrow-head was 

 for a great number of years the only one in use by the 

 different nations which devoted themselves to any extent 

 to whaling, but such an instrument may now be considered 

 obsolete, its place having been taken either by hand 

 harpoons with barbs which are closed in when the 

 harpoon is thrown, and projected as soon as there is a 

 backward strain upon them, or by harpoons or darts fired 

 from a gun, and containing very commonly some kind of 

 explosive substance. Harpoon-guns are of a comparatively 

 ancient date, and their merit consisted only in the force 

 with which they propelled the dart, there being always a 

 difficulty, not yet entirely overcome, in properly directing 

 the course of the harpoon owing to the weight of the rope 

 attached to it. A long series of ^improvements made in 

 both the United States and England has resulted in 

 bringing the gun and the harpoon to great perfection ; and 

 the large interest that America for many years past has 

 had in whaling has naturally led to the production in that 

 country of many of the most valuable improvements which 

 have been made. The guns employed are of two kinds 

 those fired from the shoulder, and swivel guns. The 

 former are mostly used, and the breech-loading principle 

 for the explosive is now applied to them. The harpoon or 

 dart is of course inserted at the muzzle of the gun. 

 Having " fastened " to a whale with the harpoon, the next 



