APPENDIX. 
199 
poon are so formed, (being as already stated, six inches 
in width,) as to make a wide wound in piercing the fish : 
it is quite obvious, that, exactly in proportion to the width 
of the passage, which the weapon cuts in forcing its way 
into the fish, will be the space left open for its retraction ; 
by the facility thus given for the instrument to withdraw 
itself, many stricken fish have been lost. I was assured by 
several masters of Greenland ships, that this accident 
had occurred to them, and that it will generally take place, 
when the harpoon is struck into a fish whose back is de- 
pressed, or when the flesh is in a relaxed state. When, 
therefore, the fish were less shy, and could be approached 
near enough, the hand harpoon frequently failed in its ob- 
ject ; and since the fish have grown more difficult of ap- 
proach, its defect has of course become of greater im- 
portance. 
To obviate at once, the disadvantages arising from want 
of force in the hand harpoon, and from the great distance 
at which the whales often kept their pursuers, a harpoon 
to be discharged from a gun was suggested, patronised, 
and the inventor justly rewarded. Such a mode, it was 
confidently thought, would overcome both difficulties ; but 
this confidence has unfortunately been disappointed. 
I am acquainted with the form of three harpoons that 
have been used from guns, they are correctly represented 
in the subjoined figures. 
1st. A gun harpoon, the shank of which is a solid 
bar of iron, continued from a cylindrical butt, the size of 
the caliber of the piece ; the rope is secured to a ring that 
slides on the shank. 
i 
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