ferent places ready for the attack; on the re-appearing of the fish several harpoons were plunged into it, and it was quickly despatched by the lances. From the feeble resistance it made, it was evidently not of magnitude, or possessing much strength, It proved to be a female whale, twenty-seven feet in length, and eighteen feet six inches in circumference.
After the necessary arrangements of securing the fins, the fish was fastened by the tail to a boat, and towed to the ship, for the purpose of "flincing," or stripping it of its blubber, which is performed in the following manner: tackles being fixed to the nose and tail, the fish, with the belly upper most (as here represented), is secured along-side of the ship; the harpooners, with their spurs[1], getting on the fish, make parallel incisions through the substance of the blubber, about three feet asunder, and in a transverse direction; they next raise a large flap, in the centre of which they cut a hole large enough to admit the
- ↑ Spiked irons, secured to the bottom of their boots to prevent their slipping.
