NATURAL HISTORY. 93 



which are usually first observed by the column of steam and 

 water that the whale sends into the air from its nostrils. 

 At the welcome sound " There she blows," the whole crew 

 starts into activity ; the boats, which are always kept hang- 

 ing over the side of the ship, furnished ready for action, 

 are instantly manned and lowered into the water, and the 

 boat springs oil' in chase of the whale. The harpconer, whose 

 station is in the bow, examines his implements carefully, tries 

 the edge of the harpoon, and sees that tlie rope is properly 

 coiled, as an entanglement would probably upset the boat, or 

 even drag it below water. It will be as well just to notice 

 the different weapons used in the whale-fishery. The first 

 and most important is the harpoon, a kind of spear with a 

 large barbed head, the shape of which is not very unlike the 

 flukes of an anchor. The edges of the barbs are kept very 

 sharp, as otherwise the harpoon would not penetrate beyond 

 the blubber, and the whale would consequently escape. The 

 head of the harpoon is not made of steel, as most would 

 imagine, but of soft iron, so soft that it can be scraped to an 

 edge with a knife. This is fixed to a wooden handle, by 

 which the harpooner holds it. In some vessels the harpoon 

 is fired at the whale from a small cannon placed in the bow 

 of the boat. There are some very ingenious harpoons in the 

 United Service Museum, one of which, intended to be fired 

 from a gun, has its barbs joined to the head by a hinge*, arid 

 held apart with a spring, so that when a whale is struck the 

 barbs collapse until the force of the blow is expended, when 

 the spring expands them and holds the whale firmly. The 

 common harpoon, however, is the weapon usually employed. 



To the harpoon is fastened a long and very tough line, 

 about 4,000 feet in length. This line is coiled up at the 

 head of the boat, and great care is taken to prevent it from 

 being entangled. It runs over a kind of pully, as the friction 

 is so great when the alarmed whale starts off, that the rope 

 when out of its place has repeatedly set tbe gunwale of the 

 boat on fire. A bucket of water is -therefore always kept at 

 hand to throw on the rope. At Deptford, some years back, 

 might be seen a boat, the head of which had been quite cut 

 off by the rope. "When a whale is struck it sometimes runs 

 out with the whole of the line, in which case the line of 



