WHALE-FISHERY. 231 



ed from one boiling of blubber in the copper, each 

 can be allowed, in turn, to stand undisturbed up- 

 wards of twenty-four hours. Thus, while one is in 

 the act of being filled, the other stands to cool and 

 settle, and the third is drawn off. If the backs be 

 twice this size, or four times the capacity of the 

 copper, every one will require two days to be filled 

 by one copper, and after being filled, may subside 

 during two or three days undisturbed. Even two 

 backs in number, of this capacity, would admit of 

 an interval of twenty four hours each, after being 

 filled, before it would be necessary to begin to emp- 

 ty it. Thus prepared and cooled, the oil is in a 

 marketable state, and requires only to be transferred 

 from the coolers into casks for convenience of con- 

 veyance to any part of the country. Each of the 

 coolers, it has been observed, is furnished with a 

 stop-cock, beneath which there is a platform adapt- 

 ed for receiving the casks, when they are filled, with 

 great ease, by the introduction of a leathern tube, 

 extending from the orifice of the stop-cock into the 

 bung-hole. 



At the conclusion of the process of boiling, each 

 vessel's cargo manufactured on the premises, the 

 backs are completely emptied of their contents. To 

 effect this, water is poured in, until the lower part 

 of the stratum of oil rises to within a few lines of the 

 level of the stop-cock, and permits the greater part 

 of the oil to escape. The quantity left, amounts, 

 perhaps, to half an inch, or an inch in depth. To 



