Into this circle stepped a very old man, who leaned heavily upon the shaft of his harpoon and blinked his watery, red-rimmed eyes.
As soon as one received his portion he placed it upon the snow and drove his harpoon in past the barbs to prevent its being jerked off in the wild scramble for a place at the fire.
And so the old foster-mother made a mark for it to wear; a collar of plaited sinews, as broad as a harpoon line.
And then he rowed straight at them, and he lifted his harpoon and he threw it and he struck.
When he had run round it for the third time, he grasped hisharpoon firmly, and without turning round, thrust it out behind him, and struck something soft.
But on the shore, just opposite where he was, a crowd of children were playing in a ravine, and time after time they frightened away a seal just as he was about to harpoon it.
He took his bladder float, to make a tow-line fast, and wound up the harpoon line, but before he had come to the middle, a breaking wave came rolling down on him.
And he called out to him from the place where he was: "Harpoon it!
And Saunikoq lifted his harpoon to throw it, and the stroke could not fail.
When they reached the place, Qasiagssaq hurried up with the harpoonline in his hand, before his wife's mother had landed.
Then he rowed out with him, and when they had come so far out that they could not see the bottom, he said: "Take the harpoon point with its line, and fix it on the shaft.
It is a joy to catch such beasts," said the Moon Man, and the Obstinate One felt a great desire to harpoon one of them.
Oh, if only I could send my harpoon through her," cried the man in return.
Storm was harnessed to the harpoon rope, and soon the monstrous fish lay panting on the sand.
Fritz, recollecting our encounter with the shark, placed the harpoons in readiness; and amused me by seeming to picture himself a whaler, flourishing hisharpoon in most approved fashion.
Then I came on a herd of walruses, and I did so long to make a prize of one that I forgot everything else, and made chase after them when beyond the influence of the current, until I got near enough to harpoon this fine fellow.
Blacks harpoon dugong as they do turtle, but the sport demands greater patience and dexterity, for the dugong is a wary animal and shy, to be approached only with the exercise of artful caution.
So contractible and tough is the skin, that once the point of the harpoon is embedded in it, nothing but a strong and direct tug will release it.
Not the least in dread of the shark, his only fear being for the safety of his harpoon and line as the lithe fish leaps and snaps, the black plays with it until it submits to be towed ashore.
Its occupant sits back and steers with flippers of bark, until as the game weakens he is able to approach and plunge another harpooninto it.
Occasionally when the blacks harpoon a turtle or a dugong a sucker is secured.
When that moment arrives, a second harpoon is sent into the flesh below the edge of the carapace at the rear.
Dick untied the harpoon line, which was kept lashed to a thwart in the canoe, and, after getting overboard, carefully fastened the painter of the canoe to a mangrove root.
On this day of the 'gator hunt, Molly took the wheel and her father ran the engine of the motor-boat, while Ned and the captain poled the skiff and Dick stood in the bow with the harpoon pole.
The captain took Molly and Dick out in the skiff to show them a crocodile and Dick stood in the bow with the harpoon while Molly sat amidship and the captain poled.
As they neared the shark, Dick took the harpoon pole and made ready with the harpoon, while Ned sculled quietly in the wake of the ugly fish.
I'll stop down the harpoon so you can't drive it more than an inch beyond the hide, and the 'gator will never know he's hurt.
They soon started a nine-foot alligator out of his cave, and after a chase of ten minutes and a few sudden turns were so near the reptile that Dick fixed his harpoon to the end of the pole and stood ready.
There's another harpoon on the Irene, and I'll fix it to-night with a few feet of wire for the next shark to bite on.
The other end of the harpoon line was then fastened to a mangrove tree on the bank and the baby was turned loose.
Dick was so mortified at missing that he offered the harpoon to the captain, who refused it, saying: "You threw all right and almost got him last throw.
The captain's prophecy was fulfilled and at the next throw the harpoon pierced the soft hide of the hind leg of the reptile.
The shark lashed out with its tail, sending the water flying as the harpoon struck, and then made a straight-away dash for a hundred yards while the boys rode in triumph behind it.
They took the harpoonfrom the animal's tail and tried to drag the creature over the gunwale of the skiff, but found it too heavy for them.
He had just struck his harpoon into a fish, when, lifting up her tail, she drove the boat into shatters.
A "fore-ganger" is a piece of rope a few fathoms long, made of white or untanned hemp, so as to be more flexible and easily extended when the harpoon is projected from the hand.
Instead of this, he boldly went to the very edge of the ice, and while the whale was blowing, he darted his harpoon deep into his neck.
The harpoon is launched from his hank, and sinks deep into the oily flesh.
As he had no means of breathing under the ice, he died quietly, and was dragged up by the line of the first harpoon which struck him; and, by breaking the ice so as to let the line pass, he was hauled up to the ship.
When a walrus is struck near the edge of a floe, the hunter fastens the line of his harpoon round his body and places his feet firmly against a hummock of ice, in which position he can withstand the very heavy strain of the struggling animal.
On every harpoon is stamped the name of the ship, so that it is at once easy to ascertain, from the weapon in the whale, by whom it was struck.
The harpoon for this purpose is made with two shanks, side by side, one of which goes into the bore of the gun; to the other on the outside the line is attached.
The object of the barb, of course, is to prevent the harpoon being drawn out of the whale after it has been fixed.
Again the eager boats dashed in, almost running on its back, and from every side it was plied with lances, while another harpoon was driven deeply into it, to make it doubly secure.
The hand harpoonis projected by aid of a stock or handle of wood, seven feet in length, fixed in the socket.
The quick-sighted eye of the first mate was on her almost before she had reached the surface; and before she could again seek safety in the ocean's depths, another harpoon was plunged into her.
The crews of six whale-boats, which have been lying ready on the beach, with their lines carefully coiled in a tub, and harpoon and lances all at hand, assemble like magic.
The steersman has seized the harpoon to which the long line of coiled rope is attached; in a moment he has plunged it into the animal's side.
Our people endeavoured to harpoon some dolphins, but the handle of the instrument, which was admirably contrived, soon broke.
This is when the harpoon has been hurled by a very skilful and vigorous harpooner.
The harpoon is a barbed javelin, fastened to a staff to give it momentum.
No sooner was the harpoon thrown, than a change took place in the disposition of the crew of the boat, which it may be well to explain.
The iron of the harpoon being very soft, the shank bends under the strain of the line, leaving the staff close to the animal's body.
Owing to this arrangement, the harpoon offers less resistance to the water, as the whale passes swiftly through it.
She had talked about it to Kinraid and her father in order to cover her regret at her lover's accompanying her father to see some new kind ofharpoon about which the latter had spoken.
I see by that harpoon that you made a pretty good shot with the iron; just a little nearer to the shoulder and you would have fetched him.
The boat was lowered, and theharpoon with its apparently endless coil of rope, was made ready.
Jim crouched in the bow, the harpoon clutched in his right hand.
As Tom said, it looked as though a harpoon thrown into the air in almost any direction would hit a whale when it came down!
I saw a hideous, crimson zigzag gash on the broad side of the whale, I heard the rumbling roar of the time-bomb at the point of the harpoonexploding in the whale's vitals.
We couldn't find the harpoon Tom Anderly had thrown into it!
The bomb-lance and gun are all very well; but the harpoon is the real weapon on which the whaleman must depend.
The whale had gone straight downward and the cable attached to the harpoon shot over the bow so fast that the eye could not follow its course.
The harpoon blade is made like an arrow, but with only one barb, which turns on a steel pivot.
If I'd driven home a harpoon with such a sure hand and steady aim as his, I'd be so proud that my hat wouldn't fit me.
The harpoon is shot from the gun, and after it leaves the muzzle, a rocket charge attached to it carries it still further.
The shank was about two feet long and served as a socket to the shaft which gave a total length to the harpoon of more than six feet.
Fred, as Lester, a little chagrined at the miss, drew the dripping harpoon in over the side.
Lester joined them after he had got the harpoon ready to throw, and with this reinforcement they soon had the shark within three feet of the stern of the boat.
The harpoon has an explosive shell attached to its head like the torpedo of a submarine.
Now, in most of the whaling boats, they put the harpoon in a gun, just as you might thrust a ramrod down the muzzle of a rifle.
He was the head harpooner of the first mate's boat and many's the time this old harpoon has struck a ninety barrel whale.
He'll be tickled to death when he hears that I've speared a shark with that old harpoon of his.
Well, now that the harpoon is out, let's turn this fellow on his back.
The harpoon sticking out at that angle helps to keep us back.
But the shark lunged aside, and the harpoonclove the water three inches to the right.
He at once got his harpoon ready, and took post on a rock, expecting that one would before long approach him.
He found that he had made a mistake, and was nearly losing his line and harpoonas well as the seal.
The other sailor managed to hit a porpoise, but he was excited, too, and the harpoon didn't go in the right place.
He didn't get excited at harpooning a porpoise, but drove his harpoonin at just exactly the right place, and the sailors up on deck hauled that porpoise in.
There's the harpoonin her, and you have got her at the end of your line, and you're waiting for her with your lances ready to put her out of her misery.
One harpoon had missed; the other had fixed the bull of the herd, at which it had been surely aimed.
Abou Do now stealthily approached the ledge of rock beneath which he had expected to see the head of the animal; his long sinewy arm was raised, with the harpoon ready to strike, as he carefully advanced.
The harpoon for hippopotamus and crocodile hunting is a piece of soft steel about eleven inches long, with a narrow blade or point of about three-quarters of an inch in width, and a single but powerful barb.
The howartis, having studied the wind, ascended for about a quarter of a mile, and then swam across the river, harpoon in hand.
The hunters failed in several attempts to harpoon them, but they succeeded in stalking a crocodile after a most peculiar fashion.
The harpoon was sticking in the nape of the neck, having penetrated about two and a half inches beneath the hide; this is about an inch and three-quarters thick upon the back of the neck of a bull hippopotamus.
I watched eagerly for the reappearance of the hippo; the surface of the water was still barren, when suddenly the right arm of the statue descended like lightning, and the harpoon shot perpendicularly into the pool with the speed of an arrow.
The extreme end of the short harpoon is fixed in the point of a bamboo about ten feet long, around which the rope is twisted, while the buoy end is carried in the left hand.
Many a whale had received its deathblow from him, and he was eager to flesh his harpoon in this redoubtable cetacean which had terrified the marine world.
Feeling certain it was a dugong feeding on the well-known "grass," I rose and hurled my harpoon at it with all the force I could muster.
So far I had won laurels enough with my mysterious arrows or "flying spears," as the natives considered them, and my prowess with the harpoon and tomahawk was sung in many tribes.
In a few minutes we two were speeding over the sunlit waters, my only weapon being the steel harpoon I had brought with me from the island, and about forty or fifty feet of manilla rope.
My harpoon had evidently inflicted a mortal wound on the calf whale, because as we looked we saw it lying exhausted on the surface of the water, and being gradually swept nearer and nearer the shore by the swift- flowing tide.
The sport which I myself took up was dugong hunting; for I ought to have mentioned that I brought a harpoon with me in the boat, and this most useful article attracted as much attention as anything I had.
Oddly enough, the fore-part of the boat remained fixed to the rope of the harpoonin the calf.
That we knew meant mischief; but, in coming towards us, he passed close to the other boat, and the steersman gave him the harpoon right well into him.
You see, the sparmacitty don't take the harpoonquite so quietly as the black whale does; he fights hard to the last, and sometimes is very free with his jaws.
On he came, and when his snout was within six feet of us, we pulled sharp across him; and as we went from him, I gave him the harpoon deep into the fin.
