part of the body, between the head and the tail,
will admit of the full length of the instrument, without danger of
obstruction. The moment that the wounded whale disappears, a flag is
displayed; on sight of which, those on watch in the ship, give the
alarm, by stamping on the deck, accompanied by shouts of "a fall."--At
the sound of this, the sleeping crew are roused, jump from their beds,
rush upon deck, and crowd into the boats. The alarm of "a fall," has a
singular effect on the feelings of a sleeping person, unaccustomed to
hearing it. It has often been mistaken as a cry of distress. A
landsman, seeing the crew, on an occasion of a fall, leap into the
boats in their shirts, imagined that the ship was sinking. He
therefore tried to get into a boat himself, but every one of them
being fully manned, he was refused. After several fruitless endeavors
to gain a place among his comrades, he cried out, in evident distress,
"What shall I do?--Will none of you take me in?"

The first effort of a "fast-fish," or whale that has been struck, is
to escape from the boat by sinking under water. After this, it
pursues its course downward, or reappears at a little distance, and
swims with great celerity, near the surface of the water. It sometimes
returns instantly to the surface, and gives evidence of its agony by
the most convulsive throes. The downward course of a whale is,
however, the most common. A whale, struck near the edge of any large
sheet of ice, and passing underneath it, will sometimes run the whole
of the lines out of one boat. The approaching distress of a boat, for
want of line, is indicated by the elevation of an oar, to which is
added a second, a third, or even a fourth, in proportion to the nature
of the exigence. The utmost care and attention are requisite, on the
part of every person in the boat, when the lines are running out;
fatal consequences having been sometimes produced by the most trifling
neglect.--When the line happens to "run foul," and cannot be cleared
on the instant, it sometimes draws the boat under water; on which, if
no auxiliary boat, or convenient piece of ice, be at hand, the crew
are plunged into the sea, and are obliged to trust to their oars or
their skill in swimming, for supporting themselves on the surface.

Captain Scoresby relates an accident of this kind, which happened on
his first voyage to the whale fishery. A thousand fathoms of line were
already out, and the fast-boat was forc