160 
A VOYAGE TO SPITZBEBGEN. 
our chance. “Pinch him all you can ! ” “ Not an 
inch of line more than you can help ! ” “ He is well 
fast, and no fear ! ” Such are the warnings and pre¬ 
cautions of the harpooners one to the other, as they 
make their several dispositions before the fellow dives. 
Once more the two boats are dragged towards the 
place where the whale had j ust. been. The water is 
made foul by his slimy back, and the air is full of the 
foul odour peculiar to the cetacean. Down plunge the 
bows of the boats as the unseen cause drags onwards 
and downwards in his efforts to free himself from his 
tormentors, but with no avail. Each man is now fully 
alive to the danger of the enterprise he is engaged 
upon. All sit with eager eye upon the line, ready, 
too, in case of a capsize, to jump for dear life into the 
icy stream, to take what chance may offer of being 
picked up. 
Again the whale is on the surface ; this time he is out 
of breath, but is getting ready for another mad effort 
to free himself. Our gun is charged with a rocket, 
a steel-tipped bolt, fatal and deadly beyond compare. 
If it but strike the object aimed at, then its course 
is certain; rending and burning its onward course 
it soon penetrates to. the very centre of its victim, 
and there it bursts asunder, causing such a wound 
as will rob this giant of the seas of its life. Eddy 
