10 
HISTORY OF THE WHALE. 
only a short distance ; but as soon as he rises, the 
whalemen endeavor to plunge into him the lance, an 
instrument of the finest steel, sharpened with the 
keenness of the surgeon’s lancet. Attached to the 
harpoon is a line, which, as the animal is disposed to 
sink or dash through the waves, is suJered to run 
loose around a small post in the bow of the boat, and 
it often flies with such rapidity that the harpooner is 
enveloped in smoke, and it becomes necessary to pour 
on water, to prevent the friction from generating 
flame. They often bind line after line together. If 
the line becomes entangled while the whale is sink- 
ing, the boat rears one end aloft, and makes a majes- 
tic dive into the deep. In the contest, sometimes 
the boat is dashed to shivers, and the men experience 
no pleasant immersion, if they are fortunate enough 
to escape without broken limbs. The whale, stung 
with the fatal wound, sometimes dashes along the 
surface with a death-like energy, and the little boat, 
almost under water, flies with the velocity of the wind. 
If he escape, he escapes with a prize on which he has 
no cause of congratulation, for he carries deeply bu- 
ried in his body one or more of the sharp instruments, 
and drags off several hundred fathoms of rope. Our 
whalemen have found irons in the carcass of a whale, 
known to have been planted there several years before, 
on another ocean. As the warp flies, it sometimes 
throws its coils around the body of a man, and drag- 
ging him over, it carries him into the ocean depths, 
from which he never more emerges. Sometimes it 
only dislocates or breaks the legs and arms of the 
