194 3IABINE MAlMMALS OF THE NORTH-WESTERN COAST. 



so that fling it which way you will, it doth fall always upon the point. Through 

 this hole cometh a piece of packthread, wherewith the end of the fore-runner is 

 fastened to the handle or stock of the harpoon, but this is soon torn off, and it 

 servcth for nothing more after the harpoon sticks in the body of the whale ; 

 neither is the wooden handle of any further use, and so it doth soon come out 

 from the iron. When the whale is struck with the harpoon, all the other long- 

 boats row out before, and take notice which way the line doth stand, and some- 

 times they pull at the rope or line. If it is stiff and heavy, the whale doth draw 

 it still with his might; but if it doth hang loose, so that the long-boat is before 

 and behind equally high out of the water, then the men pull in the rope again, 

 and the rope -giver layeth it down in very good order, round, and one row above 

 the other, that if the whale should draw on again, he may have it ready to give 

 him without being entangled. Here is also this to be observed, that if the whale 

 runs upon the level, they must not give him too much rope, for if he should turn 

 and wind himself much and often about, he might easily wind the rope about a 

 rock or heavy stone, and so fasten it to it, and so the ha)-poon would come out, 

 and all the labour would be lost, which hath often hapned, and we ourselves lost 

 one that way. The other long-boats that are towed behind, wherein the men look 

 all before them, and sit still, and let the whale draw them along. If the whale 

 doth rowl upon the ground, so that the long-boats or sloops lye still, they draw 

 their lines in again by degrees, and the rope -master doth lay them clown again in 

 their proper places, as they had been laid before. When they kill the whale with 

 launces, they also pull their lines in again, untill they come near to the whale, yet 

 at some distance, that the others may have room to launce. But they must have 

 great care, that all the lines of every sloop may not be cut off together, because 

 some whales sink, and others do swim even with the water when they are dead, 

 which nobody can tell beforehand, whether they will do one or the other. The 

 fat ones do not sink presently after they are fresh killed, but the lean ones sink 

 immediately after they are dead, but after some few days they come up again, and 

 swim on the water. But it would be too long a while for a man to stay till he 

 cometh up again, and the sea is never so quiet that one can stay long in the same 

 place ; and where the sea is quiet, and without waves, there the stream doth carry 

 the ships and the ice along together, so that we should be forced to leave the 

 whale unto others, that would find him dead some days after. 'Tis true, this is the 

 easiest way to catch whales, but it is very nasty and stinking work ; for long and 

 white maggots grow in their flesh, they are flat, like unto worms that breed in 

 men's bellies, and they smell worse than ever I smelt anything in my life. The 



