ibly pressed against the side
of a piece of ice. The harpooner, in his anxiety to retard the flight
of the whale, applied too many turns of the line round the bollard,
which, getting entangled, drew the boat beneath the ice. Another boat,
providentially was at hand, into which the crew had just time to
escape. The whale, with near two miles length of line, was, in
consequence of the accident, lost, but the boat was recovered.

The average stay under water of a wounded whale is about thirty
minutes. When it reappears, the assisting boats make for the place
with their utmost speed, and as they reach it, each harpooner plunges
his harpoon into its back, to the amount of three, four, or more,
according to the size of the whale. It is then actively plied with
lances, which are thrust into its body, aiming at its vitals. The sea
to a great extent around is dyed with its blood, and the noise made by
its tail in its dying struggle, may be heard several miles. In dying,
it turns on its back or on its side; which circumstance is announced
by the capturers with the striking of their flags, accompanied with
three lively huzzas!

Whales are sometimes captured, with a single harpoon, in the space of
fifteen minutes. Sometimes they resist forty or fifty hours, and at
times they will break three or four lines at once, or tear themselves
clear off the harpoons, by the violence of their struggles. Generally
the capture of a whale depends on the activity of the harpooner, the
state of the wind and weather, or the peculiar conduct of the animal
itself. Under the most favourable circumstances, the length of time
does not exceed an hour. The general average may be stated at two
hours. Instances have occurred where whales have been taken without
being struck at all, simply by entangling themselves in the lines that
had been used to destroy others, and struggling till they were drowned
or died of exhaustion.

The fishery for whales, when conducted at the margin of those
wonderful sheets of ice, called fields, is, when the weather is fine,
and the refuge for ships secure, the most agreeable, and sometimes the
most productive of all other ways. When the fish can be observed
"blowing" in any of the holes of a field, the men travel over the ice
and attack it with lances to turn it back. As connected with this
subject, Captain Scoresby relates the following circumstance, which
occurred under his own observation.

On the eighth of July, 1813, t