APPENDIX. 
205 
greatest impulse, and to destroy that friction which so 
much diminishes the force and accuracy of flight of the 
harpoons now in use. On the discharge, the harpoon is 
disengaged from the wooden cap, by the splitting of the 
latter. 
To cause the withers to extend beyond the orifice made 
by the harpoon, and to ensure their catching, springs were 
added as here represented. 
Neither the lock of the gun mentioned in the certificate, 
nor the gun itself, possessed any originality, (and only a 
simple means was used to prevent the gun from going off 
by accident, by a cover over the hammer) ; it exploded 
the charge by percussion, giving di powerful stroke upon well 
primed and dried fulminating composition, in copper caps, 
which effectually defied the elements to prevent the use of 
the instrument : much attention is requisite in employing 
this composition, but when that attention is scrupulously 
paid, it will never fail ; in confirmation, I have exploded 
more than a hundred primings in succession without one 
having missed. 
The gun used in the experiments was two inches in dia- 
meter, in the bore, and fourteen inches in length, having at 
the bottom a chamber and antechamber for the more im*= 
mediate manner of exploding the charge, and producing 
the greatest velocity. 
The preceding remarks on the failure of late years, in 
taking whales with the certificate I did myself the honour 
of sending to Captain Scoresby, as a gentleman of great 
experience on the subject, and, in return, had the pleasure 
