128 [Assembly 



passing on both sides parallel to the shaft, each end is rove 

 through a dead-eye on corresponding sides of the socket SLt d d; 

 they are then made fast to the whale line, which is supposed. to be 

 egual to their united strength. This line is then made fast to g, 

 short light pole by a becket upon it. This pole is for convenience 

 in throwing, and to take up the slack of the line already referred 

 to. When this harpoon is thrown into the body of the whale 

 deep enough to hold, and traction is made upon the line, the flukes 

 will spread, preventing them from being withdrawn; and, libe- 

 rating the shaft in the socket, the head is forced inward. The line 

 being then slack, the pole immediately unships, and all force on 

 the lance shaft in a lateral direction is prevented, and all traction 

 subsequently applied oh the line is spent indirectly upon the outer 

 extremity of the shaft, until it is entirely buried in the body of 

 the whale. Should the lance be arrested by bone, it may be 

 broken or bent ; in either case, the essential parts of the harpoon, 

 the socket and flukes attached, are more reliable in their hold 

 than the common harpoon ; thai is bent as soon as traction begins 

 on the line, and is liable to be wrenched out by the gyrations of 

 the animal ; while in this instrument the socket is not longer than 

 is necessary to enter past the blubber, and being of a hollow cy- 

 lindrical form, it cannot well be bent, nor is there any purchase to 

 wrench it out. It is claimed that this instrument can be used 

 with as great facility as any instrument now in use, and that the 

 lance must inflict such serious injury upon the whale by the loss 

 of blood, as to shorten the conflict and increase the number of cap- 

 tives. If the instrument is entered anywhere near the "life" of 

 the whale, it seems impossible that it should not dispatch the ani- 

 mal at once, unless it should conclude to surrender without at- 

 tempting suicide by flight. 



