THE STRANDED WHALE 241 



sought refuge beneath this strip of drifting ice. 



Men were hurriedly landed from all the boats 

 with harpoons and shoulder guns, leaving enough 

 sailors on the thwarts to fend the boats clear of 

 the ice. The landing parties clambered over the 

 broken and tumbled ice, dragging the harpoon 

 lines. We found the whale half exposed in a 

 narrow opening in the center of the floe, all the 

 ice about it red with clotted blood. Long John 

 and Little Johnny threw two harpoons each into 

 the big body and Big Foot Louis threw his re- 

 maining one. As a result of this bombardment, 

 five tonite bombs exploded in the whale, which, 

 with the harpoons sticking all over its back, sug- 

 gested a baited bull in a Spanish bullring hung 

 with the darts of the banderilleros. But the 

 great animal kept on breathing blood and would 

 not die. After all the harpoons had been ex- 

 hausted, shoulder guns were brought into play. 

 In all, twelve tonite bombs were fired into it 

 before the monster gave a mighty shiver and 

 lay still. 



But with the whale dead, we still had a big 

 problem on our hands. In some way the giant 



