Page:The crater; or, Vulcan's peak.djvu/372

 132 THE CRATER; necessary direction. By sunset a great number of whales were fallen in with, and as Capt. Walker gave it as his opinion they were feeding in that place, no attempt was made on them until morning. The next day, however, with the return of light, six boats were in the water, and pulling off towards the game. On this occasion, Walker led on, as became his rank and experience. In less than an hour he was fast to a very large whale, a brother of that taken by Belts; and the females had the exciting spectacle, of a boat towed by an enormous fish, at a rate of no less than twenty knots in an hour. It is the practice among whalers for the vessel to keep working to windward, while the game is taking, in order to be in the most favourable position to close with the boats, after the whale is killed. So long, however, as the creature has life in it, it would be folly to aim at any other object than getting to windward, for the fish may be here at one moment, and a league off in a few minutes more. Sometimes, the alarmed animal goes fairly out of sight of the vessel, running in a straight line some fifteen or twenty miles, when the alternatives are to run the chances of missing the ship altogether, or to cut from the whale. By doing the last not only is a harpoon lost, but often several hundred fathoms of line; and it not urifre- quently happens that whales are killed with harpoons in them, left by former assailants, and dragging after them a hundred, or two, fathoms of line. It may be well, here, to explain to the uninitiated reader, that the harpoon is a barbed spear, with a small, but stout cord, or whale line fastened to it. The boat approaches the fish bow foremost, but is made sharp at both ends that it may &quot;back off,&quot; if necessary; the whale being often dangerous to approach, and ordinarily starting, when struck, in a way to render his immediate neighbourhood somewhat ticklish. The fish usually goes down when harpooned, and the line must be permitted to &quot; run-out,&quot; or he would drag the boat after him. But a whale must breathe as well as a man, and the faster he runs the sooner he must come up for a fresh stock of air. Now, the proper use of the harpoon and the line is merely to fasten to the fish; though it does sometimes happen that the creature is killed