A FALL! A FALL! 
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noise or splash. Only a few strokes, and the boat has 
“ way on ” sufficient to take her within harpoon range ; 
the harpooner raises his hand, the signal is repeated by 
the steersman, and the men rest on their oars ; the force 
given to the boat’s motion proves sufficient to bring us 
alongside. No one dares to turn his head, and we feel 
the short interval of enforced obedience to this severe 
trial of patience intensely. The narwhal all this time 
has not budged an inch, he does not even seem to 
notice us ; his eye, however, is so placed that he has a 
wide range of vision, and the steersman, knowing this, 
takes us obliquely towards him, being careful to keep 
at a respectful distance from his tail. The boat glides 
within striking range. What would we not give to see 
the action of the harpooner now ! But while we 
hesitate, a wild hurrah comes from the ship, and the 
spell is broken ; we look round in time to see the 
line fly like lightning from the tubs. “ A fall! a 
fall! ” is the cry of the boatmen. “ And well fast,” 
is the echo to the cry. A second crew hastily man 
another boat and hurry to our assistance ; the stricken 
narwhal has taken a headlong dive beneath the ice, 
so there is nothing for it but to take the line over and 
across the pond we are in, and with two or three long 
and strong pulls we drag him to the surface. Up 
comes our narwhal, lashing the water with his power- 
