UNDER A WHALE'S TAIL. 499 



now seen dancing and jumping like madmen on the half-deck hatch, scream- 

 ing ' a fall ! ' as if for their lives. The more active men of the crew are on 

 deck in an instant, with ready bundle of clothes in hands, and shoes or boots 

 slipped loosely on their feet. But it is generally a race who will be first into 

 their boats, clothed or unclothed, and nothing is more common than to see 

 half-a-dozen fellows rushing to the boats with nothing on but their woollen 

 underclothing, the rest in a bundle under their arm, trusting to the first 

 stoppage to complete their toilette, such as it is. Rather a sudden change 

 this from their close and crowded ' bunks ' (as they call them) in the half- 

 deck to an atmosphere often far below zero. But neither the old whaling 

 sailor, nor the green Orkney boy, ever seemed to feel it. 



" The stern-boat was the only one now left on board. The master order- 

 ing it to be lowered, and getting into it himself, I jumped in with him. We 

 pulled up to the ' fast boat,' to see how things were getting on, and found they 

 were only fast with the gun-harpoon, and not very well with that. Whilst 

 talking to the harpooner of this boat, we heard a commotion amongst the 

 others, and almost before we had time to turn, bang ! went one of their guns, 

 and the fish was made almost secure. She seemed to dive under the floe, 

 and reappeared almost at the same place, for she next came up within a very 

 short distance of where she was first struck, when a third boat got fast to 

 her, and before she dived again she was mortally lanced. When she next 

 appeared at the surface, it was close to our boat ; we were at her in a 

 minute, when the ready lance of the master was twice buried deep behind 

 her fin. She made a rush forwards, which pulled the lance out of his hand, 

 but he soon had a second — ^we ' hardened up ' to the fish, when he plunged it 

 into her side. She had been quiet enough hitherto, but it was now full time 

 for him to cry, ' Back, men, for your lives ! ' I heard a sudden whizzing, 

 whistling sound in the air — I thought a black cloud had passed between us 

 and the sun — a drenching shower of spray passed over us, and there was a 

 loud thud upon the water on the other side of the boat, as her huge tail 

 descended into the sea, which it continued to lash into seething foam for 

 more than five minutes. It may be believed that whilst this was going on 

 we all kept at a safe distance. It was, however, only the last struggle— 

 ' the dying flurry,' and the huge mass was soon lying powerless and motion- 

 less before us. This was a female whale, and one of the largest we had yet 

 seen." Its length was sixty-five feet, and its breadth behind the gills thirty 



feet. 



Such was Captain Penny's good fortune, that in three weeks he had 

 taken almost as many fish as he wanted, and had nearly " a full ship." He 

 was now free to bear up from the fishing-ground of Pond's Bay, and steer 

 for Lancaster Sound. Goodsir was devoutly glad to find himself " running 

 smartly" towards the sound on the 1st August. On Friday the 3d, Captain 



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