THE AMERICAN WHALE-FISHERY. 191 



sometimes to tell more than they had. When it is windy, that they could not 

 hear one another, they waved their hats to signifie the number caught. But when 

 they have their full freight of whales, they put up their great flag as a sign 

 thereof; then if any hath a message to be sent, he delivers it to them. On the 

 12th of July we had a gloomy sun — -sunshine all day. We saw but very few 

 whales more, and those we did see were quite wild, that we could not come near 

 them. That night it was so dark and foggy that we could hardly see the ship's 

 length. "We might have got sea-horses enough, but we were afraid of losing our 

 ships, for we had examples enough of them that had lost their ships, and could 

 not come to them again, but have been forced to return home in other ships. 

 When after this manner any have lost their ships, and can not be seen, they dis- 

 charge a cannon from the ship, or sound the trumpets or hautboys, according as 

 they are provided in their ships, that the men that are lost may find their ships 

 again." 



As to the mode of capturing and flaying the mysticetus, as well as the process 

 of extracting the oil from the blubber, the narrator gives the following description, 

 under the headings respectively of "How they Catch the Whale," "What they do 

 with the Dead Whale," and "Of the Trying out of the Train -oyl from the Fat." 



"First, it is to be observ'd, that when it's like to be a good year to catch 

 whales in, there is many ivhite-Jish to be seen before : but where we see many 

 seales, there we do not expect to meet with many vjhaks; for thej' say, that they 

 eat up the food of the whale, wherefore the whales will not stay in such empty 

 places, but go to find out better, and so come to Spitzhergen, for there, at the 

 shoar, we see great plenty of the small sea- snails, and perhaps some other small 

 fish. They are caught after the following manner : When they see whales, or 

 when they hear them blow or spout, they call in to the ship. Fall, fall; then 

 every body must be ready to get into the long-boat that he doth belong to; 

 commonly six men go into every long-boat, and sometimes seven, according as 

 the long-boats are in bigness; they all of them row until they come very near 

 unto the whale ; then doth the harpoonier arise, who sits always before in the 

 boat, where the harpoon, or the sharp iron made like unto an arrow fixed to a 

 stick, doth also lie on the foremost board of the long-boat, which the seamen 

 call the Staffen, that is, the broad piece of wood that cometh up before the boat 

 from the bottom, and stands up higher than all the rest. But when the whale 

 runs strait down towards the bottom underneath the water, then he doth draw 

 the rope very hard, so that the upper part of the long-boat is even with the 

 surface of the water; nay, he would certainly pull it down to the bottom, if they 



