134 THE WHALE. 



Though to the refined palate of a modern Euro- 

 pean, the flesh of a whale, as an article of food, 

 would be received with abhorrence, yet we find 

 that it is considered by some of the inhabitants of 

 the northern shores of Europe, Asia, and America, 

 as well as those on the coasts of Hudson's Bay, 

 and Davis's strait, as a choice and staple article of 

 subsistence. The Esquimaux eat the flesh and 

 fat of the whale, and drink the oil with greediness. 

 Indeed, some tribes, who are not familiarized with 

 spiritous liquors, carry along with them in their 

 canoes, in their fishing excursions, bladders filled 

 with oil, which they use in the same way, and with 

 a similar relish, that a British sailor does a dram.* 

 They also eat the skin of the whale raw, both 

 adults and children; for it is not uncommon, when 

 the females visit the whale-ships, for them to help 

 themselves to pieces of skin, preferring those with 

 which a little blubber is connected, and to give it as 

 food to- their infants suspended on their backs, who 

 suck it with apparent delight. 



Blubber, when pickled and boiled, is said to be 

 very palatable; the tail, when parboiled and then 

 fried, is said to be not unsavoury, but even agreea- 

 ble eating; and the flesh of young whales, I know 

 from experiment, is by no means indifferent food. 



Not only is it certain that the flesh of the whale 

 is now eaten by savage nations, but it is also well 



* Ellis's voyage to Hudson's Bay, p. 233. 



