PROCESS or FLENSIXS. 801 



tackle, on which, the carcass being at liberty, ge- 

 nerally sinks in the water and disappears *. When 

 it floats, however, it becomes food for bears, sharks, 

 and various kinds of birds, all of which attack it 

 with most voracious earnestness. 



When sliarks are present, they generally take 

 the liberty of helping themselves very bountifully 

 during the progress of the flensing ; but they often 

 pay for their temerity, with their lives. Fulmars 

 pay close attendance in immense numbers. They 

 seize the fragments occasionally disengaged by the 

 knife, while they are swimming in the water ; but 

 most of the other gulls who attend on the occasion, 

 take their share on the Vving. The burgomaster is 

 decidedly the master of the feast. Hence every 

 other bird is obliged to relinquish the most deli- 

 cious morsel, when the burgomaster descends to 

 claim it. Bears seldom approach so near the ship, 

 as to become partakers of the banquet. 



When dispatch is seconded by ability, the opera- 

 tion of flensing can be accomplished on a fish af- 

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

 three or four hours. Probably the average time 

 with British fishers but little exceeds four hours. 



* When a whale has been 21 to 48 hours killed, its kreng, 

 as the carcass after being flensed is called, becomes so swollen 

 by the air generated by the process of putrefaction, tliat it Avill 

 swim ; and, in a few days after deatli, will rise three or fouv 

 feet above the siu-face of the water. 



