FIN FISH. 
393 
straps, two or three fathoms long, made of seal 
skin, having at the end a bag of a whole seal’s 
skin, blown up. The huge animal, by means of 
the inflated bag, is, in some degree, compelled to 
keep near the surface of the water. When he is 
fatigued and rise$, the men attack him with their 
spears till he is killed. They now put on their 
spring jackets (made all in one piece of a dressed 
seal's skin), with their boots, gloves, and caps, 
which are laced so tightly to each other, that no 
water can penetrate them. In this garb they 
plunge into the sea, and begin to slice off the fat all 
round the animal's body, even from those parts 
that are underwater : for their jackets being full 
of air, the men do not sink, and they have means 
of keeping themselves upright in the sea. They 
have sometimes been known so daring as, while 
the whale was still alive, to mount on his back and 
kill him from thence. 
Fin fish. 
This species is distinguished from the common 
whale by the fin upon the back, placed low, and 
near the tail. It is sometimes found in the British, 
but is more frequent in those tracts of the northern 
ocean, where the w'hale fishery is carried on. It is, 
however, a booty which the fishermen seldom 
choose to pursue : the whale-bone adhering to 
its upper jaw is short and knotty, and therefore 
of very little value : the blubber also yielded by 
this species is very inconsiderable in quantity ; and 
these circumstances, added to its extreme fierceness 
and agility, render the capture both difficult and 
dangerous ; our seamen generally neglect it. 
But meagre as this animal may seem to those 
whose object is the procuring of oil, it is held in 
great esteem by the miserable Greenlanders ; fqr 
