24 



Stk January, 1889. 



John Brown, Esq., in the Chair. 



The Rev. Alexander Gordon, M.A., read a Paper on 

 NOTES OF SPANISH TRAVEL, 188 



Prior to the delivery of the lecture, 



Mr. Robert M. Young (Hon. Secretary) said Mr. Robert 

 Lloyd Patterson had asked him to express his regret at being 

 unable, owing to a previous engagement, to be present there 

 that evening. Mr. Patterson, however, had, at his request, as 

 he thought it might be of interest, sent up a few of the imple- 

 ments used in the seal and whale fisheries, which he had lately 

 borrowed from Mr. David Bruce, of Dundee, for the purpose of 

 illustrating a lecture, and he wished thus publicly to express 

 his thanks to Mr. Bruce for his kindness in lending them. 



Mr. Young then proceeded to show the implements to the 

 audience. The first was an ordinary full-sized hand harpoon. 

 A shaft about six feet long is fitted into a socket. The 

 thickish rope spliced to the shank of the harpoon is called the 

 fore gear, and to it the rope called the whale-line, or simply the 

 line, is attached. No. 2 was a piece of whale line. To guard 

 as far as possible against the danger to life and limb attendant 

 on the lines fouling or getting entangled in running out, they 

 are kept carefully coiled away in tubs. The harpoon, thus 

 provided, is thrown by the hand, and struck into the body of 

 the whale as soon as the boat has come within what the whalers 

 call " darting distance." No. 3 was a gun harpoon. The line 

 is attached to a ring, and the harpoon goes down to this into 

 a short-barrelled, very strong gun, mounted on a swivel, from 



