240 A YEAR WITH A WHALER 



Gabriel, who went after it in a flash. After a 

 sharp, swift run down the wind, we struck the 

 >vhale, which dived and went racing under water 

 for the ice pack. The dizzy rate at which it 

 took out our line might have led us to believe 

 it was not hurt, but we knew it was seriously 

 wounded by the fountains of blood it sent up 

 whenever it came to the surface. 



The captain's signals from the brig, by this 

 time, had headed the other boats in our direc- 

 tion, but they could not reach us in time to be 

 of any assistance. The whale ran away with 

 our tub of line and we sat still and watched the 

 red fountains that marked its course as it headed 

 for the big ice to the north. 



Directly in the whale's course lay an ice floe 

 about half a mile long, a few hundred yards wide 

 and rising from five to ten feet above the surface. 

 We naturally supposed the creature would dive 

 under this and keep going for the main pack. 

 To our surprise we soon saw fountain after foun- 

 tain, red with blood, shooting up from the cen- 

 ter of the floe. The whale evidently was too 

 badly injured to continue its flight and had 



