462 



ACCOUNT OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 



tains a very small proportion. Whales have been 

 caught that afforded nearly thirty tons of pure oil ; 

 and whales yielding twenty tons of oil, are by no 

 means uncommon. The quantity of oil yielded by 

 a whale, generally bears a certain proportion to the 

 length of its longest blade of whalebone. The ave- 

 rage quantity is expressed in the following table*. 



Though this statement on the average be exceed- 

 ingly near the truth, yet exceptions sometimes oc- 

 cur. A whale of 2^ feet bone, for instance, has 

 been known to produce near ten tons of oil ; and ano- 

 ther of 12 feet bone, only nine tons. Such instan- 

 ces, however, are very uncommon. 



A stout whale of sixty feet in length, is of the 

 enormous weight of seventy tons ; the blubber 

 weighs about thirty tons, the bones of the head, 

 whalebone, fins and tail, eight or ten ; carcass thirty 

 or thirty-two. 



• This table is somewhat different from that given in Wer- 

 nerian Memoirs, (vol. i. p. 582) ; an increased number of ob- 

 servations having enabled me to improve it. 



3 



