50 



MAMMALIA. 



penetrate to tte desired depth : out of five or six Whales struck 

 "by the harpoon, it often happens that one only is made well fast. 

 When, from a false calculation as to the distance, awkwardness, or 

 fear, the harpooner has thro^vn his weapon badly, the 

 Whale promj^tly frees itself from the instrument which 

 has wounded it, by a sharp contraction of its muscles. 

 As soon as it is free, the animal starts off, and it is 

 then useless to attemj^t to follow it ; it is lost sight of 

 after fifteen or twenty minutes ; in most cases its 

 companions accomjDany it, and are for the future more 

 difficult to approach than they were formerly. If, 

 on the contrary, it is made fast to the boat, it 

 qiiivers and seems to shrink under the blow ; excited 

 by the pain, it prepares to make its escape ; hindered 

 in doing this bj^ the dart it carries in its flesh, it at 

 first hesitates, so that any ordinarily skilful harjDooner 

 is able to send a second harpoon into it ; at any rate 

 in a few minutes it dives. The ofiicer then changes 

 his j)lace, and proceeds to take his post of action. Up 

 to this time he has directed the manoeuvres ; now he 

 is going to act himself; to kill the animal is his right 

 and his duty. More than two hundred fathoms of the 

 line are already in the sea, and the animal is stUl 

 diving. The force of plunging is so great, that if 

 there were anything in the waj^ of the rope it would 

 make the boat capsize. The line has been known, as 

 it was unrolling itself, to catch a man by an arm, a 

 leg, or even by the body, and drag him down into the 

 sea, from which he did not rise again tiU the part 

 caught hold of had been cut through by the friction. 

 It is difiicult to form an idea of the coolness required 

 in these preliminary manoeuvres : it is necessary to 

 have at the same time great resolution, extreme 

 Fig. 14— promptitude, and the utmost prudence. If the first 

 Harpoon. opportunity is missed, all chance may disappear, and 

 the fruit of long labour is lost. To judge from the uneasy air 

 of certain officers, one would say that they -^'ere afraid, so 

 anxiously do they look all round, and watch every little thin"- ; 

 but by the direction of the line, they know whether the 



