Modern Whaling & Bear-Hunting / A record of present-day whaling with up-to-date appliances in many parts of the world, and of bear and seal hunting in the Arctic regions

Lancing a Whale.
An eighteen-foot spear is the lance—half iron half wood. The pram is swung out; and Jensen is handed the lance. We reach the whale and Jensen makes a lunge, and the spear goes in five feet and is twisted out of his hand; the vast body rolls over, the tail rises up and up and comes down in a sea of foam.

MODERN WHALING & BEAR-HUNTING
A RECORD OF PRESENT-DAY WHALING WITH UP-TO-DATE APPLIANCES IN MANY PARTS OF THE WORLD, AND OF BEAR AND SEAL HUNTING IN THE ARCTIC REGIONS
BY W. G. BURN MURDOCH, F.R.S.G.S. AUTHOR OF “FROM EDINBURGH TO THE ANTARCTIC” “AN ILLUSTRATED PROCESSION OF SCOTTISH HISTORY” “FROM EDINBURGH TO INDIA AND BURMAH” &c. &c. &c.
With 110 Illustrations chiefly from Drawings & Photographs by the Author
LONDON SEELEY, SERVICE & CO. LIMITED 38 Great Russell Street 1917


The readers of this book will be interested to learn that the expedition from Dundee which set out for the Antarctic regions in 1892 to the Weddell Sea, south and east of Graham’s Land, and in which the author of the present volume took part, was the first of its kind since the famous expedition commanded by Sir James Ross in 1842. Dr W. S. Bruce, the distinguished polar traveller and oceanographer, was the scientific naturalist, and Mr Burn Murdoch, the author of this volume, was the artist and historian of the expedition, which is described by his pen in “From Edinburgh to the Antarctic.” It consisted of three whaling vessels specially built of great strength to withstand ice pressure, barque rigged and fitted with auxiliary steam power. They were accompanied by a Norwegian barque of similar type. The chief object of the expedition was the capture of the Right or Bowhead whale by old methods, from small boats. For three months these vessels were continuously amongst the thick pack ice and enormous bergs on the east side of Graham’s Land.
The publication of the above-mentioned book, and lectures by Dr Bruce and Mr Burn Murdoch, revived both at home and abroad interest in the Antarctic regions, and in 1897 the Belgica expedition followed in their wake, and this again was followed by expeditions of various European nations.