12 THE WHALE-FISHERY. by means of two large boilers, with X which whale-ships are furnished. The X fire is made with the scraps of blubber X that has been tried, which produces a X great heat. x Whaling is not only a toilsome, but X a very dangerous business. Few men X follow it many years without either X suffering, or seeing other suffer, great X calamities. The dangers are many, X and some of them so sudden as to ren- x der escape almost impossible. Sometimes the Whale, after he is X struck, in his violent struggles dashes 4 the beat in pieces. The rope, too, to X which the harpoon is fastened, may 4 get entangled while the Whale is X drawing it out of the boat with great x rapidity. In this case, if the line is X not instantly cut by the man who stands x ready for the purpose, the boat is im- X mediately drawn under water. X Mr. Scoresby saw a boat thrown X several yards into the air, from which X it fell on its side, plunging its crew into X
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