HUNTING THE BOTTLENOSE WHALE 



armed with six guns fore and aft; in addition, each 

 boat has a gun mounted on the very bow. The guns 

 are much smaller than those of the steam whalers 

 and shoot harpoons only three feet long, with several 

 strong barbs but without explosive points. Each iron 

 carries with it twenty or thirty fathoms of "forerun- 

 ner," which leads to the main five-hundred-fathom line 

 coiled in a tub at the stern of the small boat. As 

 soon as a whale has been struck, a turn of the rope 

 is thrown about a small post called the "puller," to 

 check the speed of the running line. The small boats 

 carry four sailors each two at the oars, one to steer, 

 and one at the gun. 



The work in the bitter cold and freezing water, to 

 say nothing of the ever-present possibility of having 

 one's head, arm, or leg shorn clean off by the whizzing 

 rope, robs bottlenose hunting of its attractiveness, 

 and it is difficult, at present, to find competent men 

 who will ship even for a short cruise. Therefore 

 these whales have been but little studied and there 

 is much to learn about their habits and family life. 



Most of our present knowledge is due to the ob- 

 servations of Captain David Gray and Mr. Axel Oh- 

 lin, who in 1891 spent two years on a bottlenose ves- 

 sel. According to Mr. Ohlin, when a herd of whales 

 is sighted, if it will not come within range of the ship, 

 one or two boats are launched which slip quietly 

 toward the animals. Generally the whales spout sev- 

 eral times at intervals of thirty or forty seconds and 

 then sound, to remain below sometimes for an hour 

 or more. The boats lie to where the school has dis- 



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