vn 
from a kind of swivel ; but it was soon 
found to be attended with too much in¬ 
convenience to be much practised, and 
the muscular arms and steady nerves of 
the harpooner, have ever since perform¬ 
ed the daring duty, of first striking the 
whale. The ropes attached to the har¬ 
poon, used to be about 200 fathoms in 
length, and some instances occurred, 
that all the lines belonging to six boats, 
were fastened together and ran out by 
one whale, the animal descending in 
nearly a perpendicular line from the 
surface. Instead of going prepared to 
bring home a ship load of oil, it was cus¬ 
tomary to bring only the blubber, and 
instead of trying the oil out and putting 
it into casks on board, the fat of the 
whale was cut up into suitable pieces, 
pressed hard in tubs carried out for 
the purpose, and in this situation was 
the return cargo received at home. 
Of so great consequence was the whale 
fishery considered to Great Britain, that 
a bounty of 40s. for every ton, when the 
ship was 200 tons, or upwards, was giv¬ 
en to the crews of ships engaged in that 
business in the Greenland seas, under 
certain conditions. But this bounty 
was found to draw too largely upon the 
