If the harpoon misses, which often happens in a choppy sea, the gun is again loaded and the line hauled in with the greatest haste. Instead of being frightened by the report, the whale’s curiosity is usually aroused, and an opportunity for a second shot is soon given. When a bottlenose has been hit, the harpooner immediately twists the line several times around the puller, the steersman makes sure that the rope is clear, and one of the oarsmen hoists a flag to signal the other boats or the ship to stand by in case of accident. The whale usually dives straight downward at tremendous speed and has been known to take out five hundred fathoms of line in two minutes. At such times, no matter how carefully the harpoon rope may have been coiled in the stern, there is great danger that it may run foul or get entangled. If a knot is formed, the line must be cut instantly or the boat will be dragged under water. Not infrequently the line gets looped about the body of one of the sailors and the man is either killed or loses an arm or leg. When the bottlenose reappears after the first rush, usually he is almost exhausted and lies quietly at the surface spouting frequently. A second boat then tries to get near enough for a shot or to thrust a hand lance into the whale’s lungs. Like all cetaceans, just before the bottlenose dies it goes into the death flurry and plunges back and forth lashing the water into foam or throwing its body into the air. It is well to keep at a safe distance during the flurry or a stove boat will result. When the whale has been killed, the freezing line is hauled in and the animal towed to the vessel to be cut in. The blubber is stripped off as the body rolls over, is sliced into thin sections, and thrown into iron cisterns in the ship’s hold; the carcass is then left to sink. A full-grown male bottlenose will yield about two tons of oil and two hundredweight of spermaceti, which is contained in the “forehead” in the same relative position as the “case” of the sperm whale. The great masses of fat at the bases of the jawbones are also of considerable value. An analysis of the bottlenose oil and spermaceti shows it to be as fine in quality as that of the sperm, and the whales yield a large amount considering their small size. The tremendous strength and endurance of the bottlenose are proverbial and I doubt if many of the extraordinary tales which one hears in the cabins of the shore whaling vessels are greatly exaggerated. It seems certain that this whale can, and does, remain under water longer than any other large cetacean, and its strength and endurance in proportion to its size are probably surpassed only by the killer (_Orca orca_). Bottlenose whales are said to throw their entire bodies into the air, their powerful flukes giving such tremendous power to the leap that they take the water again headfirst instead of falling back helplessly on their sides.