CAUSE OF THE OFFENSIVE SMELL OF OIL. 411 



trcfaction commences, a small portion of the blood 

 contained in tlie blnbber is probably combined with 

 the oil, and the animal fibre, in considerable 

 quantity, is dissolved in it. These substances 

 not only occasion tlie unpleasant smell common 

 to whale-oil, but by being deposited on the wick of 

 lamps in burning, produce upon it a kind of cinder, 

 whicli, if not occasionally removed, causes a great 

 diminution in the quantity of light. A sample of 

 oil v,hich I extracted in Greenland about ten years 

 ago, is still fine, and totally free from rancidity. It 

 has certainly acquired a smell, but it is not more 

 unpleasant than tliat of old Florence oil. Hence, 

 were whale-oil extracted in Greenland, before the 

 putrefying process commences, or were any method 

 devised of freeing it from the impurities which 

 combine with it in consequence of this process, it 

 would become not only more valuable for common 

 purposes, but would be applicable to almost every 

 use to which spermaceti-oil is adapted. In fact it 

 would become a similar kind of article. 



In the first age of the fihihery, all the blubber 

 taken, used to be reduced in Spitzbergen or Jan 

 IVIayen, and imported in the form of oil only. This 

 shows that the process can be accomplished in the 

 cold climate of Greenland ; but in the present state 

 of things, the site of the fishery being removed to 

 a great distance from the land, whereas formerly it 

 was carried on in tlie Acrv bavs, there is not suffi- 



