158 THE WHALE AND 



Captain Bunker's lost Harpoon. Where Lodged. 



threw a harpoon into a large whale. But the 

 whale was not captured, and the harpoon of 

 course lost. It was about five years afterward, 

 that, being precisely in the same latitude, and 

 east longitude one hundred and forty, he made 

 fast to a noble whale, and after a hard struggle 

 succeeded in getting him alongside. And lo ! 

 when cutting him up, a harpoon, rusted off at 

 the shank, was found fast anchored in the old 

 fellow's " cut- water." " Hallo !" said Captain 

 Bunker, jesting, " here is my missing old iron." 

 What he said in joke proved to be very truth, 

 for the blubber-kept harpoon was the identical 

 one he had lost five years before, having on it 

 the ship's name and his own private mark. 



But to come back to our great subject of dis- 

 section now in hand, the case was raised par- 

 tially out of water, so as to keep the waves from 

 washing into it, and an incision was then made 

 through the membrane of one of the ventricles 

 of the head, into which they are now letting 

 down great buckets as into a well, dipping them 

 full of pure sperm, and whipping it up into hogs- 

 heads. It has a slight rose tint, and looks like 

 ice cream or white butter half churned. There 

 will be about fifteen barrels of these brains(?) 



