70 FISHEBIES OP ALASKA, 1908. 



nose of the slip under water at all stages of the tide. A large IJ-inch 

 diameter iron chain is then attached to the tail of the whale and it is 

 hauled out of the water under the "flensing" shed by a powerful 

 steam winch. 



As soon as the whale is in place men with long-handled knives 

 commence "flensing;" that is, removing the blubber. This is a layer 

 of fat directly under the skin, covering the whole body like a huge 

 blanket, and varying in thickness from 4 to 7 inches on the whales 

 found in southeast Alaska waters. The men walk from the head 

 toward the tail, cutting long gashes in the blubber as they go, then a 

 steel hook attached to a wire cable is hooked in at the end of a strip, 

 the steam winch heaves in on the wire, and the long strips are peeled 

 off one after another. 



As fast as removed these strips of blubber are put into the slicer, 

 or blubber cutter, and chopped into half-inch slices, which are 

 dropped into an endless bucket elevator to be hoisted to the blubber 

 pots, where the oil is tried out by means of steam pipes running 

 through the pots. After the blubber is exhausted in these pots, it is 

 conveyed in a chute to a drainage tank, where the bulk of the water 

 is separated by gravity, and then to the dryer, where, mixed with the 

 residue of the meat, it is turned into guano. 



After the blubber is removed from the carcass and the inside fat 

 is taken out by chopping through the ribs, the carcass is hauled up 

 to the carcass platform, which is at right angles to and a few feet 

 higher than the main slip. Here another gang of men remove the 

 meat from the skeleton. This meat, which very much resembles 

 beef both in appearance and flavor and is frequently eaten at the 

 station, is put into pots arranged on both sides of the platform, 

 where it is boiled and the oil extracted from it by acid processes. 

 After the oil has been dipped off from these meat pots, a sluice is 

 opened and the residue is allowed to drop into the chute, where it is 

 run into the drainage tank mentioned above, from thence going into 

 the hot-air dryer with the blubber residue. Here it is made into 

 guano by a drying process which dries the material thoroughly and 

 then shreds it fine, after which it is ready for the market, its value as a 

 fertilizer being very high. 



The blubber oil is ready for barreling as soon as it is cold, but the 

 meat oil must be clarified first, to remove the little particles of meat 

 remaining in the liquid. The latter is the darker of the two oils, 

 both before and after clarifying. 



The parts of the whale utilized and the products prepared at the 

 station are as follows : Tails, sliced into thin strips, salted, and sliipped 

 to Japan, where they are eaten; oil, guano, bone meal (the bones of the 

 whale ground up fine), and finners, or gill bones, the baleen of com- 

 merce, although a much inferior grade to that secured from the right, 



