THE ELUSIVE BOWHEAD 7I 



under which it dived for refuge so that the harpooner was 

 forced to cut the Hne to save the boat from disaster. 

 Though they cruised around the berg for a long while 

 neither boat sighted that whale again and the rest of 

 the whales had been 'gallied' or frightened and had dis- 

 appeared as soon as the first had been struck. 



When they found a school of humpback whales gambol- 

 ling around a berg they killed one but the body sank before 

 they could bring it to the ship. 



They sighted several big blue whales and finback whales 

 but these fellows quickly outdistanced the boats by 

 swimming away at great speed. 



So the boats returned to the Pilgrim^ the crews crest- 

 fallen at their failure to repeat the success they had made 

 of their earlier hunt. 



Taking the craft in tow the Pilgrim cruised between the 

 ice and soon found more Greenland whales. But again 

 their efforts were thwarted for in addition to running for 

 the ice there were other tricks these whales could play. 

 Most animals tend to develop defensive tactics if they are 

 hunted by man or beasts of prey; such was the case with 

 these whales which the ships of Europe had been hunting 

 for many decades. One of their disconcerting habits was 

 to settle below the surface as the boats approached so that 

 although visible to the eye they were invulnerable to the 

 harpoon. Then there was the trick of arching their backs 

 and presenting an impenetrable target of curiously taut 

 blubber to the dismayed harpooner whose iron rebounded 

 as it would from a metal shield. At other times an area of 

 sea would seem one moment to be swarming with Green- 

 land whales and the next they would disappear as if by 

 magic. In the open sea it would not have been difficult 

 to find them again but among the ice where there were so 

 few passages a boat could follow it was almost impossible. 



At last by dint of their persistent eflforts the men of the 

 Pilgrim attached both their boats to one and hung on to the 



