THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN. 165 



At this moment the captain and old Ben occupied the 

 stern of the boat, and in the perilous moment I was just mad 

 enough to enjoy the expectant look with which the two old 

 whalemen awaited the arrival of the oncoming flukes. For- 

 tunately for us all, the blow was delayed a moment, and when 

 the thundering concussion came, it cleared oar boat by a 

 few feet. 



The other boats were out of sight, and the ship's hull was 

 dimly seen to leeward. Tet for two hours more the whale 

 ran and fought with • redoubled energy. The captain got 

 long darts with the lance, but to no good effect ; the iron 

 drew, and the victorious whale passed away from us. We 

 were fagged and dead-beat; almost worn to death, and we 

 did not reach the ship until long after night-fali. The other 

 boats picked up the mate's crew, no one having been hurt. 



On the following day the captain did handsomely by his 

 bow-oar by remarking to me that an officer in the boat nev- 

 er meant half he said, and that such scolding was his habit. 

 " But," he solemnly added, " never again, under any possible 

 circumstances, make a line fast between the boat and a whale. 

 Why, if that mad whale had gone down, the b'oat would have 

 been a quarter of a mile under water in less than a minute, 

 and half the crew might have been with it !" Bow-oar sug- 

 gested that it was better to be under water than live under 

 a charge of cowardice. The old man overlooked this impu- 

 dence, and turned on his heel. Thus I have shown that the 

 harpoon is to fasten to the whale, the line to keep communi- 

 cation with it, and the lance is the instrument by which it is 

 killed, a spade being sometimes used to check a running 

 whale. 



I have heard of a modern invention to kill whales, in the 

 form of a short gun, fired from the shoulder of the boat- 

 header. The invention is known as the " bomb-lance." It 

 consists of a tube of iron about eighteen inches long, sharp 



