48 A YEAR WITH A WHALER 



through walls of split water. .Whales still crush 

 boats with blows of their mighty flukes and spill 

 their crews into the sea. 



There is just as much danger and just as much 

 thrill and excitement in the whaling of to-day 

 as there was in that of a century ago. Neither 

 steamers nor sailing vessels that cruise for sperm 

 and bowhead and right whales nowadays have 

 deck guns of any sort, but depend entirely upon 

 the bomb-guns attached to harpoons and upon 

 shoulder bomb-guns wielded from the whale 

 boats. 



In the old days, after whales had been har- 

 pooned, they were stabbed to death with long, 

 razor-sharp lances. The lance is a thing of the 

 past. The tonite bomb has taken its place as an 

 instrument of destruction. In the use of the 

 tonite bomb lies the chief difference between mod- 

 ern whaling and the whaling of the old school. 



The modern harpoon is the same as it has been 

 since the palmy days of the old South Sea sperm 

 fisheries. But fastened on its iron shaft between 

 the wooden handle and the spear point is a brass 

 cylinder an inch in diameter, perhaps, and about 



