Whale hunting with gun and camera: A naturalist's account of the modern shore-whaling industry, of whales and their habits, and of hunting experiences in various parts of the worldAndrews, Roy Chapman
Science
Whale hunting with gun and camera: A naturalist's account of the modern shore-whaling industry, of whales and their habits, and of hunting experiences in various parts of the world
Andrews, Roy Chapman
Whales; Whaling
There are a number of French dwellers along the St. Lawrence River who
live by selling the skins and oil of the _Marsouin blanc_, and
arrangements were made to hunt with one of them. The day before, I had
driven twenty-five miles from Tadoussac to the porpoise hunter’s cabin
and in the morning, shortly after five o’clock, my cameras were loaded
into one of the canoes and we paddled around the rocky headland into the
little cove where the yawl from which we were to hunt lay at anchor.
A run of four hours took us across the St. Lawrence and we began beating
up the south shore against a strong head wind. It was slow work and not
until three o’clock in the afternoon did we drop anchor in a shallow
cove at Apple Island, our destination. There is a strong tide rip about
the eastern end of this little point of land, and in it the whales play
back and forth, feeding on the small fish which drift in with the
current. After stowing the sail, one of the canoes with two of the men
put out from the harbor while the three of us who remained climbed over
the rocks to the highest point of the island.
The wind had changed and blew strongly from the southwest, topping the
long swells with white and churning the waves into foam as they broke
along the ragged shore line. Three or four whales could be seen some
distance away and the canoe headed for them, as it swung around the
point, in spite of the rough water. With my glasses, I watched the
little craft bobbing about among the whitecaps, slowly nearing the
specter-like forms which rose every few seconds and sank, only to appear
again a few feet farther on.
When they were about one hundred yards away, the men became motionless
and the boat drifted onward with the wind. The porpoises paid not the
slightest attention to the canoe and went down only a few feet ahead. As
they left the water the man in the bow suddenly leaned forward and with
gun ready waited the reappearance of the animals. They came up not
twenty feet away and hardly had their snowy heads appeared above the
surface when a thin white line of smoke shot from the gun and the
nearest whale threw itself high in the air, falling back in a cloud of
spray. Instantly the canoe leaped forward, the man in the bow balancing
the harpoon, but the whale straightened out and sank before he could
throw the iron. With disappointed faces the men returned and climbed the
rock where we were sitting.
We watched until six o’clock but no more porpoises appeared, and I was
glad when we reached the boat for the wind cut like a knife as it drove
across the hilltop. The cabin was so small that we could not sit upright
and it was next to impossible to move when we were all there together;
however, it was warm and that was something. After our dinner of stew,
made from potatoes and onions, we packed ourselves away for the night,
each on a narrow board which served as a bunk.
[Illustration:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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