OFF TO TEE JAPAN GROUNDS. 151 



Supposing the aim to be good and the force sufficient, 

 the harpoon would penetrate the blubber until the end 

 of the trigger-rod was driven backwards by striking the 

 blubber, releasing the trigger and firing the gun. Thus 

 the whale would be harpooned and bomb-lanced at the 

 same time, and, supposing everything to work satis- 

 factorily, very little more would be needed to finish him. 

 But the weapon was so cumbersome and awkward, and 

 the harpooners stood in such awe of it, that in the majority 

 of cases the whale was either missed altogether or the 

 harpoon got such slight hold that the gun did not go off, 

 the result being generally disastrous. 



In the present case, however, the *' Pierce " gun was 

 in the hands of a man by no means nervous, and above 

 criticism or blame in case of failure. So when he sailed 

 in to the attack, and delivered his "swashing blow," 

 the report of the gun was immediately heard, proving 

 conclusively that a successful stroke had been made. 



It had an instantaneous and astonishing effect. The 

 sorely-wounded monster, with one tremendous expira- 

 tion, rolled over and over swift as thought towards 

 his aggressor, literally burying the boat beneath his 

 vast bulk. Now, one would have thought surely, upon 

 seeing this, that none of that boat's crew would ever 

 have been seen again. Nevertheless, strange as it may 

 appear, out of that seething lather of foam, all six 

 heads emerged again in an instant, but on the other side 

 of the great creature. How any of them escaped 

 instant violent death was, and from the nature of the 

 case must ever remain, an unravelled mystery, for the 

 boat was crumbled into innumerable fragments, and 

 the three hundred fathoms of line, in a perfect maze of 

 entanglement, appeared to be wrapped about the writhing 



