The Arizona sentinel., 1886-09-04
MODERN WHALE-HUNTING.
The Bomb Lance and How It Is Used by
 the Monterey Fishermen.

1 The Bomb Lance and How It Is Used b. the Monterey Fishermen.
 The Monterey Whaling Company i
 about the oldest institution of the kinC on the coast. and the stock proves very fair investment to the holders, who art the whale-killers themselves The bus mess office, store-room and eating anC sleeping apartments of the company art in a white adobe building in the west ern suburbs, and half mile further south is high cliff, whereon is the company's lookout. He is armed witt powerful glass, and a tall mast i: rgged with halyards for hoisting 8 signal when game is sighted.
 The hunting tools consist of three oi the regulation double-pointed boats in use by whalers the world over, five long oars to each boat, two hundred fathoms of line smoothly coiled in tubs in the bow, and two guns to each boat. The larger size of the two has the propor- tons of a young cannon and is mount ed on pivot. The missile discharged from it is steel bar four feet in length, and provided with folding barb that opens out when the harpoon buries it. self in the whale. This takes the place of the old-time harpoon, and is much more certain and effective The lighter gun is fired from the shoulder, and looks like large-sized fowling piece. It has l 1-2 inch bore. It is used 10 put the finishing touches on the whale after the harpoOn has made him fast, and the method is to fire an explosive bomb into a vital spot The bomb is 1 1-2 inches in diameter by Is inches long. the butt end being winged with rubber tips, after the manner in which an arrow is feathered, to secure guiding power.
 It was early morning when the white signal tiuttered to the top of the staff of the mast on the cliff, and having pre- v,ously obtained permission to join the hunt with Captain Mariana, the quar- termaster was speedily seated in the stern sheets, awaiting the signal to shove of. This was soon given, and six miles to the northwest the three boats came up with their game, which proved to be an unusually large speci- men of the California gray variety. The gigantic fish rolled lazily about on top of the water, all unconscious of inn pending danger, and did not even deign to notice the approach of the boats that came upon either side and behind her. A hundred feet away the men lay on their oars, and Captain Mariana sighted over his swivel gun. The men bent over their oars, with every muscle ready to pull or back water at the slight est hostile movement on the part of the enemy. 1t was a moment that seemed an age of awful suspense to the green hand, but presently the captain had fair mark presented, and pressed the trigger. The boat quivered under the shock accompanying the report, and the eye could plainly catch the flash of the harpoon as it cleaved the air and buried itself out of sight somewhere in the right shoulder. Attached to the steel missile was the stout manila line coiled in the bow, and it bore the ap- pearance of a flash of brown lightning as it zigzagged through the air after it's powerful motor.
 The whale hardly seemed to compre- hend the trouble that had overtaken her at first, and it was fully half minute