98 THE WHALE AND 



Gambols of the Fin-back. How to be Caught. 



noise, in spouting, like the sound of bell-metal, 

 but it can seldom be so closely approached by a 

 boat as to dart a harpoon ; and when it is struck, 

 it is said to run with such amazing swiftness 

 as to part the line before it can be let out, or 

 compel to cut it loose. Its spout at a distance, 

 especially near the Falkland Islands, where I 

 have seen them in great numbers, flashes up 

 from the ocean just like smoke from the breech 

 of a gun fired in a frosty morning. I have 

 seen the horizon thus, for an extent of many 

 miles, all smoking with them, and the ocean 

 all alive with their gambols. It is not a thing 

 beyond the reach of probability that this hith- 

 erto unmolested sea-rover may yet be brought 

 within the all-powerful grasp of predatory 

 man by swivels or air-guns, that shall fire har- 

 poons into him, or poisoned arrows from a dis- 

 tance. 



The places where the right whale is now 

 most sought by the adventurous American 

 whaleman are, in the Atlantic Ocean, what 

 are called Main and False Banks, between Af- 

 rica and Brazil, the parts around the Falkland 

 Islands and Patagonia, and the region of ocean 

 in mid- Atlantic, in the vicinity of the Island of 



