100 WHALE-riSHERY. 



preserving it in safe custody, but for defending the: 

 casks from the rays of the sun, otherwise they are 

 apt to pine and become leaky. — And, 



7. Sometimes " steeping-backs" and apparatus 

 for preparing whalebone, arc comprised within the- 

 same enclosure. 



SECT. II. 

 Process of Boiling Blubber or Extracting Oil. 



The blubber, which was originally in the state of 

 firm fat, is found, on arrival in a warm climate, to' 

 be in a great measure resolved into oil. The casks 

 containing the blubber, are conveyed, by the me- 

 chanical apparatus above mentioned, to the top of 

 the starting-back, into which their contents are emp- 

 tied or stajied, through the bung-holes. When the 

 copper is properly cleansed, the contents of the start- 

 ing-back, on lifting a clough at the extremity, 

 or turning a stop-cock, fall directly into the copper, 

 one edge of which is usually placed beneath '*. 



* In the premises of William Mellish, Esq. Shadwell Dock, 

 London, which are the best adapted of any I have yet seen, the 

 starting-hack, which is about ten tons in capacity, has a false 

 bottom full of small holes, placed a few inches above the true 

 bottom : by which the oil is drained off, and passes through a 

 grating and conducting pipe, into an adjoining copper, and is 

 boiled by itself; while the fenks collected by the grating, are, 

 at the same time, boiled in another copper placed equally con- 

 venient. 



