THE AMUmCAN WHALEMAN. 163 



got on he again attacked the wreck and struck it with his 

 jaw, cutting off about one-third of her length. As we pulled 

 past, two poor fellows, who were clinging to the bottom, beg- 

 ged for God's sake we would save them. The captain's quick 

 eye saw that the swimming crew were well provided with 

 means of support, and that the waist-boat was fast coming 

 up ; so he told them to hold on, and that he would coax the 

 whale away. The poor devils had a right to be gallied ]vist 

 then, for the mad beast was coming down on them, his ugly 

 fifteen-foot jaw at right angles with his body, and ivory 

 gleaming about it. Watching a chance, Ben made a long 

 dart and struck the bull before he reached the shattered 

 boat. This seemed to astonish the creature, and with a 

 grand flourish of flukes he put away to windward at a tre- 

 mendous pace. Evidently, we had a desperate fellow to deal 

 with. What with this continued speed, and the promiscu- 

 ous manner in which he tossed his tail, it was impossible 

 to haul line and range alongside. Resort was had to the 

 spade. We hauled line until the head of the boat was a 

 little astern of the spiteful flukes, and, watching his chances, 

 the captain pitched the broad-edged tool over the flukes 

 into the small, with the hope of severing the tendons of the 

 tail, which here came near the surface. If this piece of sur- 

 gery had proved successful, the whale must have heaved 

 to on losing control of his propeller. But it was a difiicult 

 amputation to perform on a kicking, fighting whale. He 

 ran with undiminished speed, often rolling as he went, so 

 as to give his flukes a side-cutting power, with the amiable 

 intent of smashing his little antagonist. 



I have already described the method of sheering the boat 

 to one side of the whale, and running parallel with him, by 

 taking a bight of the line over the side of the boat. In this 

 instance bow-oar had been tugging at the line for an hour, 

 but was utterly unable to get the boat in advance of the 



