364 Mr Scoresby on the Effects qfthe Sea at great depths ^ 
the line being held fast in the boat, at length stopped it, though 
not till the strain” was such that the boat was in danger of 
sinking. The “ bight” or loop of a rope being then parsed 
round the fish, and allowed to drop below it, inclosed the lino^ 
belonging to the sunken boat, which was found to be the cause 
of the phenomenon observed. Immediately the harpoon slipped 
out of the whale, and was, with the line and boat attached to it, 
on the point of being lost, when it was luckily caught by the en- 
compassing rope. The fish being then relieved from the weight 
of the lines and boat, rose to the surface ; and the strain wa& 
transferred to the boat connected with the disengaged harpoon. 
My father, imagining that the sunken boat was entangled a- 
mong rocks at the bottom of the sea, and that the action of a 
current on the line produced the extraordinary stress, proceeded 
himself to assist in hauling up the boat. The strain upon the 
line he estimated at not less than three-fourths of a ton, the ut- 
most power of twenty-five men being requisite to overcome the 
weight. The laborious operation of hauling the line in, occu- 
pied several hours, the weight continuing nearly the same 
throughout. The sunken boat, which, before the accident,, 
would have been buoyant though full of water, when it came to 
the surface required a boat at each end to keep it from sinking. 
‘‘ When it was hoisted into the ship, the paint came off the 
wood in large sheets, and the planks, which were of wainscot, 
were as completely soaked in every pore, as if they had lain at 
the bottom of the sea since the Flood !” A wooden apparatus 
that accompanied the boat in its progress through the deep, 
consisting chiefly of a piece of thick deal, about fifteen inches 
square, happened to fall overboard, and though it originally con- 
sisted of the lightest fir, sunk in the water like a stone. The 
boat was rendered useless; even the wood of which it was built, 
on being offered to the cook as fuel, was tried and rejected as 
incombustible. 
This curious circumstance induced me to make some experi- 
ments on the subject. I accordingly attached some pieces of 
fir, elm, and hickery, containing two cubical inches of wood 
each, to the marine-diver, and sent them to the depth of 4000 
feet. Pieces of wood, corresponding with each of these in shape 
and weight, were immersed in a bucket of sea-water, during the 
