Whales How Captured. 23 



In 1845, he left England with two ships and fine crews, 

 to reach Asia by way of Baffin Bay and the Arctic Ocean. 

 (Here point out the course on the map or globe.) Him- 

 self, his officers and crew of over 130 men, all perished. 



27. How do natives and explorers in the Arctic regions 

 travel over the ice and snow ? In sledges drawn by dogs. 



28. What huge animals (often, but improperly, called fish) 

 are captured in the water of the cold regions ? Whales. 

 You can know them far off by their two great fountains or 

 streams of water which they blow from their nostrils. 



29. To capture whales men spend many 

 months on long, cold voyages, and we frequently 

 hear of ships being crushed by icebergs or float- 

 ing fields of ice, and the crews frozen or starved 

 to death. All this for what purpose ? To get 

 oil and whalebone from the whale. When the 

 whalemen see a whale they hurry out of their 

 ship and row in an open boat towards him, and 

 when near enough, one of the men throws a 

 kind of dart or spear, called a harpoon, with all 

 his might into the whale. The huge creature 

 becomes furious, and the men must look sharp 

 to keep out of his way and to let out the long 

 rope which is fastened to the harpoon, else 

 their boat may be dashed to pieces or all pulled 

 far under the water in an instant. 



SPELL AND DEFINE Crew, officer, Baffin, 

 natives, sledges, captured, whales, whalebone, 

 nostrils, voyage, starved, harpoon, England. 



