VOYAGE TO GREENLAND. 
65 
ferent places ready for the attack ; on the re-appear- 
ing of the fish several harpoons were plunged into 
it, and it was quickly despatched by the lances. 
From the feeble resistance it made, it was evidently 
not of magnitude, or possessing much strength. It 
proved to be a female whale, twenty-seven feet in 
length, and eighteen feet six inches in circumference. 
After the necessary arrangements of securing the 
fins, the fish was fastened by the tail to a boat, and 
towed to the ship, for the purpose of flincing,” or 
stripping it of its blubber, which is performed in the 
following manner : tackles being fixed to the nose 
and tail, the fish, with the belly upper most (as here 
represented), is secured along-side of the ship ; the 
harpooners, with their spurs*, getting on the fish, 
make parallel incisions through the substance of the 
blubber, about three feet asunder, and in a transverse 
direction ; they next raise a large flap, in the. centre 
of which they cut a hole large enough to admit the 
* Spiked irons, secured to the bottom of their boots to prevent 
their slipping. 
F 
