The boy travellers in the Far East : adventures of two youths ... - Library

GO
THE BOY TRAVKLLEHS.
such an amount of toughness tliat he seems to bear a charmed life. We
light him M'ith harpoon and hmce, and in these later days they have an in-
vention called the bomb-lance or whaling-gun. A bomb-shell is thrown
into Iiim with a gun like a large musket, and it explodes down among his
vitals. There's another gun that is fastened to the shaft of a harpoon, and
goes off when the whale tightens the line ;
and there's another that throws
a lance half-way through him. Well, there are whales that can stand all
these things and live.
' Captain Hunting, of Xew Bedford, had tlie \vorst figlit that I know
of, while he was on a cruise in the South xVtlantic. "When he struck the
fellow—it was a tough old bull that had been through fights before, I
reckon—the whale didn't try to escape, but turned on the boat, bit her in
two, and kept on thrashing the wreck till he broke it np completely. Anotlier
boat picked up the men and took them to the ship, and then two
other boats went in on him. Each of them got in two irons, and that made
him mad ;
he turned around and chewed those Ijoats, and he stuck closely
to business until there wasn't a mouthful left. The twelve swimmers
LAl'TAIN HL'NTI.\(j.s FIUUI.