402 AVHALE-FISHERY, 



quantity of Avater*, for the double purpose of pre- 

 venting the heat of the oil from waqiing or rending 

 the back, and for receiving any impurities which it 

 may happen to hold in suspension, — a wooden 

 spout, with a large square box-like head, which 

 head is filled with brush- wood or broom, that it may 

 act as a filter, is then placed along, from the " cop- 

 per-headf" to the cooler, so as to form a communica- 

 tion between the two. The oil in the copper being 

 now separated from the fenks, Avater, and other im- 

 purities, all of which have subsided to the bottom^ 

 is, in a great measure, run off through the pipe 

 communicating with the cooler, and the remainder is 

 carefully lifted in copper or tin ladles, and poured 

 upon the broom in the spout, from whence it runs 

 into the same cooler, or any other cooler, at the plea- 

 sure of the " boilers |." Besides oil and fenks, the 

 blubber of the whale likewise affords a considerable 

 quantity of watery liquor, produced probably from 

 the putrescence of the blood, on the surface of which, 

 some of the fenks, and all tlie greasy animal matter 

 calledyoo//6' oy footing, float, and upon the top of 

 these the oiL Great care, therefore, is requisite, on 

 approaching these impure substances, to take the oil 



* Some persons dispense with the water, believing that it 

 promotes rancidity in the oil. 



t The platform built around the edge of the copper, is 

 called the copper-head. 



X The men employed in extracting oil are thus denominated. 



