$18 WHALE-FISHERY. 



gulls, who attend on the occasion, take their share 

 on the wing. The burgomaster is decidedly mas- 

 ter of the feast. Hence every bird is obliged to re- 

 linquish the most delicious morsel, when the burgo- 

 master descends to claim it. 



When despatch is seconded by ability, the ope- 

 ration of flensing can be performed on a whale, af- 

 fording 20 or 30 tons of blubber, in the space of 

 three or four hours. Flensing in a swell is a most 

 difficult and dangerous undertaking, and when the 

 swell is considerable, it is commonly impracticable. 

 No ropes or blocks are capable of bearing the jerk 

 of the sea. The harpooners are annoyed by the 

 surge, and repeatedly drenched in water, and are 

 likewise subject to be wounded by the breaking of 

 ropes, or hooks, or tackles, and even by strokes 

 from each other's knives. Hence, accidents in this 

 kind of flensing are not uncommon. The harpoon- 

 ers not unfrequently fall into the fish's mouth, when 

 it is exposed by the removal of a surface of blubber; 

 where they might easily be drowned, but for prompt 

 assistance. 



Some years ago, 1 was witness of a circumstance 

 in which a harpooner was exposed to the most im- 

 minent risk of his life at the conclusion of a flensing 

 process, by a very curious accident. The harpooner 

 stood on one of the jaw bones of the fish, with a boat 

 by his side. In this situation, while he was in the 

 act of cutting the kreng* adrift, a boy inadvertently 



* The carcass, after being flensed, is so called. 



