WHALE-FISHERY. 223 



upon it. Into the square hole in the bottom of the 

 speck-trough is fitted an iron-frame, to which is 

 suspended a canvass tube or " hose," denominated 

 a lull. The lull is open at both ends. Its diame- 

 ter is about a foot, and its length sufficient to reach 

 from the deck to the bottom of the hold. To the 

 middle, or towards the upper part of the lull, is at- 

 tached a " pair of nippers," consisting of two sticks 

 fastened together by a kind of hinge at one end, and 

 capable of being pressed together at the other. The 

 nippers being passed across the body of the lull, 

 and their detached extremities brought together, 

 they embrace it so closely, that nothing can pass 

 downward while they remain in this position; but 

 when, on the other hand, the nippers are extended, 

 the lull forms a free channel of communication be- 

 tween the speck-trough and the hold. 



Every thing being now in readiness, the blub- 

 ber, as it is thrown out of the flens-gut, undergoes 

 the following several operations. It is received 

 upon deck by the " krengers," whose office is to 

 remove all the muscular parts, together with such 

 spongy or fibrous fat, as is known by experi- 

 ence to produce very little oil. When these sub- 

 stances, which go under the general denomination 

 of kreng, are included among the blubber in the 

 casks, they undergo a kind of fermentation, and 

 generates such a quantity of gas, as sometimes to 

 burst the containing vessels, and occasion the loss 

 of their contents. From the krengers, the blubber 



