WHALE HUNTING WITH GUN AND CAMERA 



immediately behind them is a deep concavity over the 

 base of the skull, and the "neck." When the whale 

 lies at the surface only the blowholes and back show 

 above water, and the attacking boat, coming from be- 

 hind, endeavors to sail directly over the submerged 

 neck. As the boat crosses the whale, the harpooner 



Stripping the blubber from the large right whale at Amagansett. 

 This specimen was fifty-four feet long and the largest that 

 has yet been scientifically recorded. 



thrusts a hand bomb-iron into the body ; the bomb ex- 

 plodes and plows its way into the backbone, often 

 killing the animal almost instantly. 



The most difficult part of the work is to approach 

 so noiselessly that the boat can cross the neck and 

 place the bomb harpoon properly. If the whale is not 

 killed at once it will usually run at considerable speed 

 and, perhaps, dive under an ice-floe, in which case, if 

 the boat does not carry sufficient line, the rope must 

 be cut or certain destruction follows. 



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