of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



867 



through their nostrils while asleep, and they do not do so. Whales 

 can sleep as well under water as they can do on the surface, as I 

 have often seen them disappear under solid ice and remain there 

 for many hours at a time. Sometimes they also fall asleep with 

 their heads down, with only the tail standing out of the water. They 

 have often been observed in this attitude for several hours without 

 moving. 



When a Greenland whale is harpooned, its instinct is to dive straight 

 down until it reaches a depth of from 600 to 700 fathoms, and it remains 

 under the water from half an hour to forty minutes. When it comes to 

 the surface again it is evidently very much exhausted. The other boats, 

 observing the motions of the fast boat, place themselves near about where 

 the whale may be expected to reappear, immediately shooting a second or 

 third harpoon, or striking in their hand harpoons, also plying the whale 

 with lances until it bleeds to death. If a whale when harpooned has any 

 chance of reaching pack ice or a honeycombed floe, it invariably attempts 

 to reach such shelter. In these circumstances, it is very difficult to 

 capture, and is often lost through lines breaking or the harpoon drawing. 

 Whales, after the shock and fear through getting the first harpoon, if not 

 immediately struck again on reappearing on the surface, very soon recover 

 their strength, and cause great difficulty before being finally captured. 



After a whale has once broken loose, when harpooned a second time it 

 never sounds or dives, no matter how long a time may have passed before 

 it is again struck, even although years may elapse before it is again har- 

 pooned. Whenever a whale is seen to run along the surface after it is 

 harpooned instead of sounding, we at once know that it has been previously 

 harpooned ; and if we succeed in capturing it we invariably find an old 

 harpoon or a healed scar where the animal had been previously wounded. 



A whale struck a second time is always more difficult to capture than 

 one which has never been previously struck. I could give many instances 

 to prove this fact, but one or two will suffice. 



In 1872, my boats got fast on a whale. It immediately swam rapidly 

 along the surface, so fast that none of the boats could overtake it, until 

 the fast boat came against some ice, when the lines at once slackened. On 

 handing them in I found the line cut as if by a knife, showing that there 

 had been a harpoon sticking in the whale's back. The same season farther 

 south one of my boats struck another whale. It immediately took rapidly 

 to windward on the surface, so fast that the fast boat could hardly be seen 

 for spray. Fortunately the boat came against a large piece of ice, whereby 

 the harpooner was enabled to check the speed. The whale, feeling this, 

 immediately stopped, turned round, and came to leeward again, when the 

 other boats now getting up killed it. When flensing we found a harpoon 

 embedded in the body, with part of a whale line attached, belonging to 

 the i Alibi ' of Peterhead, and ascertained on our return that the whale 

 had been struck by that vessel the previous year. Whales, like all other 

 inhabitants of the sea, are very much influenced by the tides. This is very 

 marked in fishing inshore in Davis Straits, and particularly in Cumberland 

 Gulf, where during the neaps there is hardly a whale to be seen, whereas 

 in spring tides they are much more numerous. I have also seen the same 

 fact very well illustrated in the Greenland ice, when whaling in very deep 

 water where one would suppose the influence of the tides could not be 

 felt. One year in particular, where I fished in one place the whole season, 

 from early in June until the middle of August, the whales invariably 

 made their appearance three days before the full and change of the moon, 

 and entirely disappeared again three days thereafter. 



I have no doubt in my own mind that these whales were in the neigh- 



