His peculiar abilities as a whale-fisher, as may have been already inferred, were conspicuous in every department, and in every practical operation connected with the adventurous pursuit. If he could successfully attack, and safely subdue, a vicious and dangerous whale which was working destruction upon others who had assailed it; so he could harpoon a whale, under circumstances of difficulty or _distance_, when no less powerful and expert an arm could reach it. In the primary attack, the aim of the harponeer is to get the boat fairly on the _back_ of the whale, that he may the more effectually bury his barbed weapon deep in its body; but, as ofttimes happens, the whale retires from the surface before the boat can come up to it, and must then be assailed, if the distance will permit, by the projecting of the harpoon with an energetic _heave_. To strike the retiring or affrighted fish in this manner, with a weapon, which, with its immediately attached line, is of the weight of eleven or twelve pounds, is an operation requiring both strength and skill. Comparatively few harponeers are able to perform this important object, effectually, beyond a distance of twenty to twenty-two feet; and the distance of four fathoms, or twenty-four feet, requires superior expertness. This, however, was an easy range with my Father; whilst he has been known to heave his harpoon with precision and success even as far as twenty-six or twenty-eight feet. His management in the urging and furthering of the general operations of the fishery was sometimes attended with extraordinary results. Thus, on one occasion, during his command of the John of Greenock, he captured thirteen whales in thirty hours, and flensed five of them, comprising a produce of about eighty tuns of oil, of the commercial value (inclusive of the whalebone) of about 3500_l._! The ice, in this case, closing and threatening besetment, other ships in company urgently made their escape; my Father, judiciously weighing the risks and probable advantages, determined to abide the issue. He did so, his ship got beset, but, as he had anticipated, was soon released, and on the relaxation of the pressure, just as the ice was opening, whales again appeared, and he made further important progress in the fishery! * * * * * The originality of talent and tact so observable in the various records heretofore given, became equally conspicuous, as occasions offered, in an enlarged and general scope of application. The following case, though I do not remember how I learnt it, is so characteristic of my Father, that I cannot hesitate in offering it for illustration.