THE FINWHALE FISHERY OF 1885. 133 
Capt. H. Ellevsen told me that on one occasion (in 1884), his 
whaler (the ‘ Nora’) had harpooned a small Whale, which was 
not heavy enough to open the barbs and explode the shell. A 
boat went off to lance it, but Capt. Ellevsen, realising the danger 
from the unexploded shell, ordered them to cut the line. Before 
this could be done, however, the shell exploded and smashed the 
boat, fortunately without injuring any of the men, who were all 
picked up. (A similar disaster nearly befel a boat’s crew in 
lancing a Humpback in 1888, as described in ‘ The Zoologist,’ 
1884, p. 420, and similar near shaves are probably not rare). 
The charge for the harpoon-gun is 15 lod, or 288,%, grammes, 
more than half a pound avoirdupois, while the shell contains, 
I believe, over $lb.; sothe whalers are obliged to carry rather a 
large quantity with them. 
Besides these accidents caused by gunpowder, a new form of 
disaster occurred last season,—the charging, by Whales, at the 
whaling-ships, or harmless fishing-boats. The following account 
was given me by Capt. Sérensen, which I have translated ag 
literally as possible from the Norwegian original :— 
“Whales were not previously known in these regions to have 
done so much mischief as during this summer, when, besides 
destroying several fishing-boats, they also caused damage to 
certain whaling steamers. The first news of the Whales’ 
destructiveness was during the Capelan-fishing this year, when, 
at the beginning of the month of May, a fishing-boat, belonging 
to the commandant of Vardéhus Fort, was run down and entirely 
destroyed by a Common Rorqual. The crew were with difficulty 
saved by other fishermen, who were lying in proximity, but the 
boat and the good catch in it at the time were lost. A short 
time subsequently two similar wreckings of boats were reported. 
“The first whaler which had to sustain a conflict with a 
Whale was the steamer ‘ Vardohus,’ belonging to the ‘Haabet’ 
Whaling Company. This ship, on the 21st of May, shot a 
Common Rorqual, which, as it did not die immediately, was 
given a second harpoon ‘in the life,’ after which it lay as if dead. 
So the crew made all ready to heave it in, and go home to Vardé 
with it; but, to the crew’s amazement, it again showed signs of 
life, and came rushing at a furious pace against the ship, and 
rammed her at the stern-end, with the effect of bending the 
rudder and stern-post to one side. It gave the ship butt after 
