308 WHALE-I'ISHEUY. 



remain in this position ; but when, on the othey 

 hand, the nippers arc extended, the hdl forms a 

 free channel of communication between the speck- 

 trough and the hokh 



Every thing being now in readiness, the blubber, 

 as it is thifown out of the flens-gut by the kings, 

 undergoes the following several operations. It is 

 received upon deck by the " krengers," whose of- 

 fice is to remove all the muscular parts, together 

 with such spongy or fibrous fat, as is known by ex- 

 perience 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 ge- 

 nerate such a quantity of gas, as sometimes to burst 

 the containing vessels, and occasion the loss of their 

 contents. From the krengers, the blubber passes 

 to the harpooners. Each of these officers, provided 

 with a blubber-knife or a strand-knife, places him- 

 self by the side of a " closh" (PL 20. fig. 10.) fixed 

 in the deck. An attendant, by means of a pair of 

 " hand-hooks," (PI. 19. fig. 3.) or " apick-haak," (PI. 

 20. fig. 9.) tlien mounts a piece of blubber upon the 

 spikes of the closh, and the harpooner slices off the 

 skin. From the skinners, the blubber is passed 

 into an open space called the hank, jirepared as a 

 depository, in front of the speck-trough, and it is 

 then laid upon the " chopping-blocks," as want- 

 ed. It now falls under the hands of the boat- 



