WHALE HUNTING WITH GUN AND CAMERA 



water which spread out in a broad trail behind him. 



The gun had hardly been loaded before we were 

 close to the whale, with the engines at dead slow, 

 waiting for him to come up. I had taken out one 

 of the lenses of my camera but decided that the light 

 was not yet strong enough for the use of the single 

 combination since the shutter would have to be oper- 

 ated at a high speed. Sitting down upon a tool box 

 near the rail, I began hurriedly to replace the back 

 lens and was just screwing it into position when 

 "who-o-o" came the spout, not five fathoms from the 

 stern of the ship. 



We all jumped as though a bomb had been ex- 

 ploded beside us and I nearly dropped the camera in 

 my excitement. Somehow I managed to get the lens 

 readjusted without accident, and stood ready with my 

 arm around a rope just behind the gun platform. Be- 

 fore the ship swung about the whale had spouted two 

 or three times and gone down. We hardly breathed 

 while waiting and my nerves were so on edge that 

 I almost released the shutter of the camera when the 

 silence was broken by the voice of the Bo's'n from 

 the "top" singing out, "He's coming, he's coming!" 



"I can't see him!" shouted the Gunner. 



"There, there, on the port bow !" came the answer 

 from aloft. 



With a rush the great animal burst to the surface, 

 and I caught a glimpse of the spout in the mirror of 

 my camera as it shot up in a white cloud, glittering 

 in the sunlight. 



"Will he shoot?" I thought. "No, no, it is too 

 96 



