72 The American Angler 
and all turn in and assist not only in 
the killing, but in the cutting up and 
trying out. 
The westward end of Shackleford’s 
banks can muster four or five whale- 
boats and crews; one or more at the 
Cape and one or more at Morehead. 
The smaller whale mentioned in this 
article was killed by the Cape crews at 
the first shot. 
So far this season, 1894, the run of 
whales has been earlier than usual. The 
one killed on March 20 was the second 
one captured and the sixth that had 
been chased. A peculiar feature of the 
business is that the right whales only 
appear on the coast during the spring 
migration to the northward, and are 
never seen on their return journey to 
the south in the fall. 
After a whale is caught, then comes 
the very necessary and more unpleasant 
operation of cutting up and trying out. 
The carcass is hauled up as high as 
possible on the beach, lines fastened to 
anchors sunk in the sand are made fast 
and the tide allowed to wash it up as 
high as it will. The head is cut off and 
the whalebone cut out of the upper 
jaws in blocks and piled up like a shock 
of corn. The tongue is next cut out in 
pieces, being too large to handle whole. 
That belonging to the one examined 
must have weighed about two tons. 
The tools used in cutting up are known 
as spades. They are long and broad- 
bladed chisels, ground very sharp and 
fitted with a long wooden handle. The 
whole tool is some six or eight feet 
long, and the blade six or eight inches 
across. The blubber is cut in long 
strips with a pushing, jabbing motion 
of the spade, and then crosswise so as 
to get it off in square blocks small 
enough for two mentohandle. A hole 
is cut near one edge, a polerun through 
and it is then carried across to the try- 
kettles, which, in this case, were about 
one-fourth mile away. Besides the 
blubber and tongue, the lips and the 
flukes of the tail also go to the try-pots, 
and with them any fat they can get 
from the inside of the body cavity. The 
color of the blubber is a beautiful sal- 
mon pink, and it looks good enough to 
eat. After the blubber has all been 
cut away from the upper side, the whole 
of the carcass has to be spaded out in 
chunks and dragged a short distance 
away with hooks to enable the cutters 
to get at the under blubber. The skin 
is not removed, but is cut away and 
tried out with the blubber. 
The try-kettles are large iron pots of 
about fifty gallons capacity, and in this 
case they had two in use set in brick- 
work over one fire. The blubber, as it 
is cut from the carcass, is piled up near 
the try-kettles. It- is: then “minced,” 
either with a spade in a tub or on a 
bench with an old scythe blade, and is 
then thrown into the kettles. As the 
boiling is finished the oil is dipped out 
with a long handled copper ladle and 
poured into the strainer, which consists 
of a wide-flaring trough with holes in 
the bottom, the holes being plugged 
loosely with bullrushes. The strained 
oil runs into a long dug out trough 
with a partition across about the center, 
the partition also having auger holes 
plugged with bullrushes. This second- 
ary straining renders the oil perfectly 
clear, and from the lower end of the 
big trough it runs through a hole in the 
side into a small movable trough which 
connects with the bunghole of the bar- 
fel. The barrel lies on) its side am Ga 
hole in the ground, and as soon as filled 
is lifted out and replaced by another. 
The crackling is dumped from _ the 
strainer in a pile and used as required, 
