THE AMERICAN WHALE-FISHERY. 195 



longer the "whale lies dead in the water, the higher he doth swim above it ; some 

 swim a foot high above the water, others to their middle, and then they do burst 

 easily, and give a very great report. They begin immediately to stink, and this 

 encreases hourly, and their flesh boils and ferments lil^e unto beer or ale, and holes 

 breali in their bellies, and their guts come out. If any man is enclined to sore 

 eyes, this vapor inflames them immediately, as if quicklime was flung into them. 

 But when the live whales rise and swim again, some of them are astonish'd, others 

 wild or stark mad. To those that are wild we come softly or gently from behind, 

 as we do when we are going to trapan them ; for when the wind is down, the 

 weather calm, and air serene, so that the sea doth not foam or roai-, the whales 

 hear immediately the striking of the oars 



"If many small ice -sheets lye near to one another, so that we can not follow 

 the whale with our sloops or long-boats, we fetch ni our line with all might and 

 strength, and if with one or more pulls we can fetch out the harpoon, it is well, 

 if not, we chop off the rope or line. The whale is best and surest struck with a 

 harpoon when he spouts water, as is already said above, for we do observe, that 

 when they lie still and very quiet, that they then listen, and are sometimes under, 

 and sometimes above water, so that their back doth not quite dry, and before we 

 are aware of it he flings up his tail behind out of the sea, and so bids us good -by. 

 The whales may easily be caught when the air is very serene and clear, and the 

 sea Cj[uiet, and where there float neither great nor small ice -sheets, so that wo may 

 go in between them with our boats or sloops, to follow them; for at the ice-fields 

 the whales do commonly lye and rub themselves at them, perhaps by reason of the 

 lice that bite them. Besides, against the ice -sheets the sea beats, dashes, and 

 foams, with small curling waves, so that the whales do not observe nor mind the 

 striking of the oars, and so they are easily struck with the harpoon. It is very 

 dangerous to kill a female, chiefly when she is big with young, for they defend 

 themselves very long, and are harder to be kill'd than a male one. Oftentimes the 

 long-boats wait six or seven hours, nay, a whole day, for a whale, before they 



see one. 



If 



Where great quantity of small ice is crowded together, there it is also very 

 dangerous, and hard to come to the whale, for he is so cunning, that when he per- 

 ceives where the ice is he retires thither immediately. The harpoonier stands at 

 the head of the long-boat, and doth draw on the rope, to try whether it is heavy 

 or light ; if it feels heavy, so that we are afraid that it will pull the boat under 

 water, then we give him more rope ; if he runs strait out before, he draweth the 

 sloops after him. If he doth run underneath a great ice-field, the harpoonier taketh 



