64 
A VOYAGE TO SPITZBEEGEN. 
learn enough to gather that these voyages have in no 
wise fallen off in point of interest since the earliest 
exploits in these seas were recorded. Eddy and 
Byers (our harpooners) told us of one encounter 
with a whale in a previous voyage, when the boat, ere 
Eddy could strike with his harpoon, was capsized by 
the sudden rising of the whale beneath her, and in a 
moment the crew and all her gear were hurled a few 
feet into the air. 
Byers, too, had a somewhat similar misadventure, 
but in his case, as he was preparing to let drive at a 
stricken whale, she struck violently with her enormous 
tail (we shall have something to say of whales’ tails 
presently), carrying away all the gunwale of the boat 
with one terrific blow, and had it not been for the 
harpoon lines which are always coiled down in the 
open spaces between the seats of the whale boat, and 
which served as a fender to the stroke, they might 
have suffered still greater damage; as it was, they 
managed to escape with only a ducking in the icy 
sea, owing to the ready assistance of their more for- 
