They go in schools like porpoises, but generally only three or four abreast, therefore, it takes a large school a considerable time to go past. They are peculiar in having no dorsal fin, and their yellowish white colour makes them rather conspicuous.
July 3rd. Thursday. 'Before breakfast a bear was seen in the water and shot by McLean from a boat. Bears are always lucky and we knew that something better would soon come. While at breakfast a female narwhal was killed. It must have been fourteen feet long. I removed the two little embedded horns. Narwhals were very difficult to capture with the appliances in use at this time, the harpoon gun being only effective at ten or fifteen yards. As the beast generally went down when one was about twenty yards away, a long shot had to be taken with a very clumsy gun. Very little of the narwhal showed above water, just the top of its head and back. Of course there was a good sized animal immediately under the water, so that a harpoon might miss the back and still lodge in the whale. It was very cold and we had several snow showers. The bear was skinned and the skin salted and put in a barrel, no attempt being made to dry or otherwise cure any of the bear skins taken during the voyage. They were kept green.
July 4th. Friday. During the night there was a fall of snow and a breeze from the east had driven some loose ice up the Sound, and pieces were constantly breaking off the floe. These drifted down the Sound with the current; but when there was wind from the east much of this broken ice would drift up and surround us. We were dodging about under canvas in the morning, and the wind, which was bitterly cold, was going down. During the forenoon we sailed up to the floe edge and hooked on about eight miles from the south side, putting two boats on the bran, that is, one on each side of the ship. The loose ice had drifted away, and as the afternoon was very fine the Captain decided to try the unies, as the narwhals were called, and I went with him. One does not generally see very many unies together, but they were in fours and fives all over the place this afternoon and very shy. Just as the boat would get within twenty-five yards or so, off they would go. The Captain made a long shot at one and got fast. For a few minutes the line ran out rapidly, but the shot had been a long one and the harpoon drew, so we came on board disappointed.
Paddles were used instead of oars, as they made less noise. On the fishing ground we avoided noise as much as possible and for this reason the ship seldom steamed, but kept her fires banked and moved about under canvas.
CHAPTER XIV—OUR FIRST WHALE
"Hoist out the boat at once and slacken sail."
July 5th. Saturday. A beautiful day. After breakfast I was in a bran boat on the starboard side of the ship and one hundred and fifty yards away, when I heard a commotion on board, and in less time than it takes to tell, all our boats, except the upper quarter ones, were in the water and hurrying off: towards us. Our steering oar was holding the boat to the ice, so it did not take long to get away, and we pulled hard for several minutes before the boat-steerer whispered: "Avast pulling." At this time the boats were scattered along the ice edge a hundred yards apart. A whale had been seen coming up the Sound. We knew that it would continue up under the ice, and failing to find a hole through which it could breathe, it would turn and come to the surface near the edge of the ice and close to some of the boats, and that unless we had very bad luck, it was doomed. In a few minutes we saw it a quarter of a mile down the Sound; it looked like two black islands, one the head and the other the back. It lay there for several minutes and we could distinctly hear it breathe. We saw the spout, then it sank slowly and disappeared. The excitement was now' intense. The next time it would be beside a boat—which boat? Would it come up under us or beside us? Perfect silence was observed and the suspense of waiting for the first whale, I shall never forget. Probably ten minutes passed, when up came the fish almost beside the boat in which George Matheson was har-pooner. As he was already standing by his gun, no order was given, and one sweep of the boat-steerer's oar gave him his shot. The gun went off, the foregoer sprang into the air and every man shouted: "A fall! a fall!" The whale hesitated a few seconds before going down, and Matheson put in a hand-harpoon also. He was not ten feet from the whale when he fired, and almost touching when he put in the hand-harpoon. The fast boat now hoisted its jack and the fish went down and started towards the south side of the Sound, past the ship's stern. We pulled in this direction for all we were worth, the boat nearest the fast boat standing by it so as to supply more lines if necessary. When we had pulled hard for ten minutes, we slowed down, the boats keeping some distance apart, and shortly after, fifty yards from us, the whale came up. Immediately a second boat, the mate's, got fast, the huge creature going down at once, and away we went again. When our quarry next appeared, about fifteen or twenty minutes later, the nearest boat immediately began lancing, and presently we were at it. Unfortunately we all had our backs to the scene of action, except the boat-steerer and harpooner. The heavy blast, every time it breathed, sounded uncomfortably close. In a few minutes the boat-steerer called, "Back, all!" and we immediately backed water, the whale hitting the water once or twice with his tail and going down; again we were off, but not so far this time. When he next appeared he rolled about a good deal and we were afraid to go close, so the second mate fired a Welsh's rocket under one of his flukes and then we all backed off. The rocket was fired from a harpoon gun. It had a charge of powder in its trocar-shaped head, and a fuse running down the shaft. When this exploded the whale plunged fearfully and lashed the water with his huge horizontal tail. After this he was quiet and the water shot from his blow-hole was blood-stained. We now closed in again, and lances were plunged into his neck and churned up and down. Breathing became labored, and after a final flurry, his spirit passed and his blubber and bone were ours. What a cheer we gave! What a feeling of exultation! How near I felt to happy, unconventional, primitive man at that moment! As the whale was lying on its back with the flukes hanging out, a round hole was cut in each of these, through which a piece of rope was run and the flukes reverently folded across his breast; with a knife all lines attached to harpoons were cut free so that the fast boats might haul them in. The tail was fastened to the bow of a boat, and, getting in line, we all proceeded to tow the fish back to the ship, which, by the way, made no effort to help us, as the weather was fine and there was nothing in sight. Arriving alongside, the tail was fastened forward and the head aft along the port side. We went on board, and after dinner, as I sat smoking with the Captain on the cabin skylight, I could not help feeling that the life of a whaler was the only one for me.