136 HOW LONG A WHALE MAY CARRY A HARPOON 



two — and Mount Hooker on the south. Between them lay a 

 small tarn, 20 feet in diameter — the Committee's Punch-bowl. 

 The peaks to the south, among which the party wandered last 

 August, were therefore new, and they probably constituted the 

 highest point of the Canadian Rocky Mountain system. 



HOW LONG A WHALE MAY CARRY A HARPOON 



In a lecture before the National Geographic Society on Feb- 

 ruar}' 21, 1895, the Hon. George C. Perkins, U. S. Senator from 

 California, mentioned the fact that a " toggle " harpoon head 

 which he exhibited, and afterward generously donated to the 

 Society, had been obtained from a whale in Bering sea. The 

 harpoon bears the following inscription : 



MonTooooo 



The first four letters are the mark of the American whaler 

 Montezuma, which was engaged in whaling in Bering sea and the 

 North Pacific about 1850-'54. The five circles represent the 

 number of the boat to which this particular iron was assigned. 

 Taking the latest date (1854) as the date when the whale was 

 struck, it appears that the whale must have carried it thirty-six 

 years. The following abstract of Senator Perkins' remarks gives 

 some of the circumstances : 



"The harpoon was perfect, as you see it, and in a splendid state of 

 preservation, hut the shank had heen eaten away close up to the skin 

 of the animal by the action of the salt water. A little rubbing revealed 

 the name. 



"During the war of the rebellion, in 1861, Charleston was blockaded 

 by the federal fleet. The blockade-runners again and again successfully 

 eluded the fleet and carried supplies to the beleaguered city. To stop 

 this the federal government bought a number of old whalers that were 

 lying in the harbor of New Bedford, patched them up and sent them to 

 Charleston filled with stones, and sank them across the entrance to the 

 harbor. The vessels have been known ever since as the 'stone fleet,' 

 and the Montezuma was one of them. This was thirty years ago, and the 

 Montezuma was built sixty years prior to that. She was at one time a 

 British man-of-war, and was bought by New Bedford people and turned 

 into a whaler. It will thus be seen that it is safe to say that the harpoon 

 head found by the Beluga had been carried by the whale fully thirty-six 

 years. Ever since whaling became an industry it has been the custom 

 for each whaling firm to have the name of the vessel stamped on each 

 harpoon. This is done in case two or more boats from different vessels 

 should be surrounding one of the animals, in order to show which of the 

 vessels has struck it, if the animal gets away and is afterward found dead." 



