Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-04-25

feur in racing automobile is IN a paradise
of ease compared with him.
He must keep the boat in position by his
unaided strength. From the time he gets the
line until the ride is ended, he drives into
a smothering sheet of flying spray. When
the sea is high, every billow is hit by the
boat with a smash that wrenches his arms
The strain the wet line cuts and burns
his hands. And if he let's foot of it slip
he is disgraced. Once he is in it, he is in 1t
for good, with chance of help or relief
till the wild adventure is done.
Hauling Up Close.
Often the boat is hauled so close on q
harpooned whale that the harpooner leans
over and steadies himself by resting one
hand on the butt of the harpoon that is
sticking in the great mammal. while
with the other he drives the killing lance.
Again and again the long weapon is buried
deep in the black sides, until suddenly thick,
blackred clots of blood well from the
wound showing that the life has been
reached
Then it is back" sometimes for dear
life. whale may take his death SO quiet
ly, so passively, that it is pitiable to so
mighty a swimmer killed thus easily by
man. Or he may fight till the boat seems
only black atom in the sudden uproar that
smites the ocean and sends tons of water
rising till they seem high enough to wash
the sky.
only in the whale itself. The boat is a per-
feet man-trap of keen deadly tools Lances
and harpoons. cutting spades, hatchets,
knives and boat hooks, all sharpened to the
finest edge the ships grindstone can give
them fill the boat. If the whale gets at it
and hurls it into the air. the men find
themselves in murderous company when
the weapons come raining down on them.
The harpoon line goes kissing out-a SER
pent of rope far more dangerous than any
cobra. for let it but kink in the least and
catch a man and he will fly overheard with
it and out of sight as if he were a mere
splinter of wood.
So there are enough sporting chances in
the whale to excite and content the most
exacting of sportsmen. And the size of the
leaves nothing to be desired.
Mighty Dimensions.
Captain Davis, one of the most famous
of the old-time American whalers, gives
these as the dimensions of right whale
yielding $50 barrels of oil:
The blubber of such a whale" he says,
lis half yard thick and if put together in
a strip would be &C feet long and 81 feet
wide. The upper jaw would make a room
feet high and 20 feet long. The lips and
throat of the brute, with the supporting
jawbones, will weigh as much as twenty
five oxen of 1000 pounds each. The tongue
alone will often weigh as much as ten
oxen
THE spread of the lips is 80 feet. He can
take in 30 barrels of water at each mouth
full. When feeding, a whale as big as that
sits a track of sea a quarter of a mile
long and u feet wide in one run. Then he
raises his head. forces his mighty tongue
into the cavity of his whalebone sieve and
drives the water out with immense force.
THE tail of a right whale is % feet broad
and feet deep. and the point of junction
with the body is about feet in diameter.
leg.
The greatest blood vessels are more than
a foot in diameter. The blood that is fore
ed through them by a heart as big as
degrees.
THE respiratory canal is more than
foot in diameter. The rush of air through
it is as noisy as the exhaust pipe of a thou