HISTORY AND DETAILS OF WHALING. 291 



put into strong bags that will hold half a bushel or more, in 

 order to be pressed. The oil which is now obtained from this 

 first pressing is called winter strained sperm oil. 



Spring Sperm Oil. What remains in the bags after the 

 first pressing, is again heated by being put into boilers, after 

 which it is baled into casks again, and upon cooling, it be- 

 comes more compact and solid than it was before. 



During the month of April, when the temperature is about 

 fifty degrees, the oil becomes softened ; it is then put into bags, 

 and goes through a second process of pressing similar to the first. 

 The oil from this pressing is called spring strained sperm oil. 



Tight Pressed Oil. That which is left in the bags after 

 the second pressing, is again melted, and put into tin pans or 

 tubs which will hold about forty pounds each. "When this 

 liquid is thoroughly cooled, as each pressing makes what is left 

 harder, in consequence of extracting the oil, the cakes taken 

 from the tubs are then carried into a room heated to about 

 ninety degrees ; and as they begin to yield to the influence of 

 this high temperature, or the remaining oil begins to soften the 

 cakes, they are taken and shaved into very fine pieces, or 

 ground up as in some instances, deposited in bags as hitherto, 

 and put into the hydraulic press. 



The room being at the temperature indicated above, and the 

 bags subjected to a powerful pressure of three hundred tons or 

 more, all the oil is extracted from them, and what is left is 

 perfectly dry, free from any oily matter, and brittle. The oil 

 thus obtained by this last pressing is called tight pressed, or sum- 

 mer oil. 



Spermaceti. What remains after the several pressings, and 

 the removal of all the oil, is called stearine, or spermaceti. 



Spermaceti is not confined to the head matter of the whale, 

 as some suppose, nor does the head matter have any thing to 

 do with the brains of the whale, as others have falsely con- 

 jectured ; but spermaceti is found in the entire oil from the 

 sperm whale. 



