THE WHALE FISHERY. 



215 



heads (the lance being six feet long ou a wooden pole 5 feet long), one breech-loading bomb-gun 

 and five or six explosive-bomb lances. All the whaling is done uuder sail when there is wind 

 enough to propel the boat; otherwise we use oars and paddles. We endeavor to keep a little 

 behiud the whale, but on one side or the other, and when we get a favorable chance to get onto 

 it unperceived, we do so. We always strike the calf first if there is one; if not, strike any whale 

 we get near enough to ; the officer puts two irons iu if he gets a chance, if not only one. He then 

 directs the men to haul the boat close up to the whale (right on top of it very often), when he shoots 

 a bomb into it and darts his haud-lance as near the heart as he can get it, some two or three times, 

 when he slacks off the boat to allow the whale to kick aud_ tumble about in the agony produced 

 by the lances. When the lauciug has been effective the whale generally at once spouts blood (but 

 not at all times) and soon expires, perhaps in ten minutes ; again, perhaps not in twelve hours, as 

 1 have known them spout thick blood at sunrise, and to get away at sunset, but such cases are 

 now very rare, half an hour being about the average time required to kill it. 



" It is very interesting to see the whale at feed in the shallow and clear water, and to notice 

 the manner iu which the mother protects her offspring and the way it suckles her. A whale on 

 being struck darts off with velocity, and the men have to be very careful in their movements, 

 otherwise they may lose their lives. I was once taken out of the boat by the line getting round 

 me while I was iu the act of shooting a large 70-barrel whale, yet I managed to get off safely; but 

 such an escape is very rare, as the line takes the man down so quickly that he is at once drowned. 



" Sometimes the boats get knocked to pieces by the flukes of the whale, then the other boat 

 comes to the rescue. Six years ago we struck a calf at daylight close in to the shore, and soon 

 iiflcr we fastened to the cow. She spouted blood in a few minutes, notwithstanding which she 

 took us to the windward of Saint Lucia before dark; she then died after we gave her some sixteen 

 bomb lances. I happened to be in the boat that killed her, and directed the whale to be taken 

 into Martinique, where we boiled it out, getting 8 tuns of oil. The flesh of the -whale is very much 

 consumed here by all classes, and is considered to be not unlike beef, and is preferred by many to 

 the bad cattle usually slaughtered in the leeward parishes of Barbadoes. I give an abstract of 

 the catch for ten years past." 



Abstract ofn-MIeoil taken al Jliirbadoes from 1869 to 1878. 

 [Tuns whale oil of 2."i2 gallons eucli.] 



WHALE V1SHERY OF CHILI. 



There are several whaliug stations or shore parlies along the south coast of Chili. A small 

 fleet of whaling vessels is owned by some Chilian companies. Their cruising grounds extend from 

 Panama Bay to Chiloe, iu latitude 47 south, and from the coast as far seaward as 120 west lon- 

 gitude. The sperm oil is chiefly shipped to England and the other oils consumed iu Chili. 



WHALE FISHERY IN THE GULF OF SAINT LA WHENCE. 



The Canadian fisheries yield annually about one thousand white whale or porpoise hides, and 

 about $15,000 worth of whale oil. The skins are prepared as leather, producing an excellent article, 

 largely used for sportsmen's boots and for other purposes. 



