WHALE HUNTING WITH GUN AND CAMERA 



by a bar.e-.ioot. There is a roar and clap of many thunders, 

 and jetting spurts of spray leap high into the blue. 



The boats', backed' clear, still hang to the lines, the crews 

 watching events s and waiting the end. It may be that the 

 dying whale will "sound" again, or "race" in a final effort. 



But, no. The lances have gone home. A few more wal- 

 lows of despair, the great tail-flukes thrash the water with 

 lessening force, and presently the huge body, inert, lifeless, 

 lies' quietly oh the surface. Hawsers are made fast to the 

 dead whale, and while the boats return to their stations to 

 watch the remaining nets it is towed by the launch to the 

 flensing jetty ashore. 1 



Since the beginning of the last century the sub- 

 antarctic islands known as the Shetlands, South Ork- 

 neys, Falklands, South Georgia and Kerguelen have 

 proved to be the greatest whaling grounds of modern 

 times, and are today yielding nearly $35,000,000 per 

 year 'just one-half of the total world revenue de- 

 rived from the shore whaling industry. On South 

 Georgia alone, eight companies with headquarters in 

 Norway, England, Scotland, and Argentina are in 

 operation, and all the other islands have one or more 

 stations or "floating factories." 



In South America there are several stations on the 

 coast of Brazil, Argentina, and Chile, and operations 

 are also being carried on at Spitzbergen, the Faroe 

 Islands, Shetland, the Hebrides, Greenland, and the 

 Galapagos Islands. Shore \vhaling is, therefore, a 

 world industry in the truest sense of the word. 



When it was discovered that in certain localities 

 the whales were being rapidly killed off and the vessels 



1 D. W. O. Fagan in the Wide World Magazine, pp. 423-432. 



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