THE WHALE FISLIEKY. 269 



struck, but did not attach itself ; a second was thrown; this also failed; but a third was more 

 effectual, and yet she did not attempt to escape, but allowed three other boats to approach, so 

 that in a few minutes three more harpoons were fastened, and in the space of an hour afterwards 

 she was killed.' " * 



Captain Scamrnon,t referring to the manner of capturing the California gray whale, says it is 

 rare that a dam will forsake her young ; when first struck she momentarily forgets the calf in 

 her endeavor to escape, but, instantly she recovers her self possession, will suddenly "bring to" 

 and "sweep" around in search, and when the boat approaches her she sometimes demolishes it. 



FINNING OUT. The " flurry " is the whaleman's name for the dying actions of the cetacean, 

 and " nnning out-" is the death. As the old style of killing the whale with the hand-lance was not 

 only more dangerous but more exciting, I shall briefly refer to the manner in which it was accom- 

 plished. The whale being well harnessed to the boat by means of the tow-line, which is fastened 

 to the flesh-embedded harpoon, it may either " turn flukes " and " sound," or, bellowing at times 

 like a bull with a great volume of voice, however it may " run," as it is termed, taking the boat 

 in tow at a rate, it has been estimated, all the way from 15 to 25 miles an hour, when it first starts 

 off, but settling down to about 8 or 10 knots per hour when it gets warmed up to its work. This 

 is the old "Nantucket sleigh ride." The whale having tired itself by running, the boat is hauled 

 up by the line and the affrighted whale, startled anew by the close proximity of so strange a load, 

 rushes through the surging and fast receding waters. The officer " gets a set " with his hand-lance 

 and plunges about 5 or G feet of cold steel into the lungs of the victim, and persevering without 

 ceasing in the up and down motions, familiarly known as " churning," as the boat persistently 

 clings to the whale, until the'" spout" of the unfortunate cetacean is tinged with the crimson of its 

 own life-blood dyeing the waters in the vicinity ; the muscles of the strong arms now relax upon 

 the lance ; the boat is laid off, and the dying whale swims round and round in an unbroken 

 circle. This is the "flurry." Death is now merely a question of time. In intense agony the huge 

 cetacean follows its circumscribed course, laboriously plowing its way through the bloody water, 

 until the throes of death are about to convulse its enormous frame. The blood ejected through the 

 spiracles now becomes as "thick as tar." It is not only believed by whalemen, but it is usually 

 the case, that the whale during its dying moments so times its encircling path as to place the 

 head to the sun; it makes a heavy lurch; the sea is lashed into a maelstrom of angry, bloody 

 water, and the ponderous whale rolls heavily on its side, or partly on its back, with its dorsal fin 

 projecting above the water. This is " nnning out." 



To use a paradoxical expression, some dead whales are not always dead. It may be in a 

 comatose state but averse to vivisection : but as the men again approach it and cut holes 

 through the lips to make the line fast, when the whale is to be towed to the vessel, a demolished 

 boat or loss of life and limbs may be the result. Hence the more cautious whalemen " prick his 

 eye," by inserting about a foot or so of the hand-lance into the eye-ball, and if the whale does not 

 flinch it is supposed to be dead. A dead whale may be towed more easily head first, and it is also 



*But Bennett, on the other hand, says (Whaling Voyage Round the Globe, 1840, p. 180) : "I believe that we have 

 seen the female purchase her own safety by the desert ion of her young. On several occasions our boats destroyed a suck- 

 ling calf, iii the midst of a school, without sufficient interference on the part of the mother to lead to her being identified 

 by the harpoouer. In one instance, the boats, while pursuing a school, killed a calf with a single lance wound ; the body 

 of the little whale remained floating OH the water, but uone of the adults discontinued their flight. On another occasion 

 we noticed a herd of females make off with great rapidity, and leave a small calf swimming in an anxious, bewildered 

 manner in the vicinity of the ship; it continued thus deserted for some time, but was ultimately rejoined by the mother, 

 wheu they both-set off to overtake the main body of fugitives." 



t Marine Mammalia and History of the American Whale Fishery. 



