FISHES. 333 
Whales are taken in great numbers about Spitsbergen, 
or Greenland, and other northern countries by the English, 
the Dutch, &c. The South Sea Company, for several 
years, used to send annually on this expedition about 
twenty sail of ships, every ship being above three hundred 
tons of burden, and each carrying forty-five men : this 
fleet usually sailed about the end of March, but seldom 
began to fish till the month of May. When they begin 
their fishery, each ship is fastened or moored with nose- 
hooks to the ice. Two boats, each manned with six men, 
are ordered by the commodore to look out for the coming 
of the fish for two hours, when they are relieved by 
two more, and so by turns : the two boats lie at some 
small distance from the ship, each separated from the 
other, fastened to the ice with their boat-hooks, ready to 
let go in an instant at the first sight of the Whale. Here 
the dexterity of the Whale hunters is to be admired; for as 
soon as the animal shows itself, every man is at his oar, 
and they all rush on the Whale with prodigious swiftness; 
at the same time taking care to come behind its head, 
that it may not see the boat, which sometimes so alarms 
it, that it plunges down again before they have time to 
strike it. But the greatest care is to be taken of the tail, 
with which it many times does very great damage, both to 
the boats and seamen. The harponeer, who is placed at 
the head or bow of the boat, seeing the back of the Whale, 
and making the onset, thrusts the harpoon with all his 
might into its body by the help of a staff fixed to the iron 
for this purpose, and leaves it in, a line being fastened to 
it of about two inches in circumference, and one hundred 
and thirty-six fathoms long. Every boat is furnished 
with seven of these lines, which being let run, from the 
motion of it they observe the course of the Whale. 
As soon as the Whale is struck, the third man in the 
boat holds up his oar, with something on the top, as a 
signal to the ship ; at the sight of which the man who is 
