Show j S ARCTIC WHALING I How Wounded Whale Take Refuge iiI t3 Proflts of the Catch While men who have been from childhood child-hood on terms of familiarity with harpoons har-poons bomb lances and other paraphernalia parapher-nalia with which leviathans are hunted like aquatic game say that the season i yet uncertain landsmen believe that the prospects are good from what has already al-ready been done and also from the fact that lha seism had hardly opened when the Beila sailed from the north Whales appear to have been plenty in the ice but many of them were where the ships could not go Hundreds are said to have been seen spouting and spurting around a sight suggestive of interest to landsmen l though barren in acommercial way The exasperating fact to the whale men in the present season is that IIbout as many whales are reported to have been lost after being struck as found their way to the try pot Why this should be particularly exasperating is this Whales average a yield of about one hundred barrels of oil each and not far from 1800 pounds of bone With bone quoted at4 per pound and likely to go higher if the season fails the loss of one whale means the loss of several thousand dollars in bone alone The steam whaler Thrasher lost seven whales the Baloena and Orea each seven One vessel reports having seen many dead whales Ihe explanation of this is that the whales were struck but the boatsteerers harpoon and perhaps a bomb were not fatal When a whale starts for the ice with a boat dragging after him the speed being somewhat terrific it becomes necessary to cut loose when the sharpended boat comes too near the pack 1 he leviathan keeps on under the ice perhaps taking me iron and lines with him When he dies and drifts out again the whaler will take him so long as there is blubber but the oi1 is not good There is si little of the character of woodchuck hunting in Arctic whaling which the present season sea-son well illustrates The whale runs into the ice as the woodchuck into a hole and the whaler has to wait for the game to conic out A steam whaler can go through four or five feet of pack ice but when it grows thicker the obstacle becomes serious seri-ous The fact is said a mariner this afternoon speaking of the Arctic fleet that sail vessels can generally do as well as steamers early in the season But late in the season the steamers have the advantage advan-tage for they can wait and yet get out The whales were running up to the ice some time before the Jenastartcdsouth but just previous to her sailing for several days the weather was thick and the whalemen were hunting leviathans in a fog Previous to that the weather had been cearIan Francisco Bulletin |