232 ALLEN: NEW ENGLAND WHALEBONE WHALES. 



is reduced to large chunks, which are tried out in open wooden vats in which are coils of steam- 

 piping to supply heat. The oil dipped off from these vats is of a poorer grade and needs first to 

 be bleached by chemicals before it is ready for market. The • boiling process separates the 

 flesh from the bones, and the latter are crushed to be used as lime fertilizer. The meat frag- 

 ments are passed through a long revolving drum in which they are greatly comminuted by 

 swinging knives inside the drum, while at the same time the bits are dried by heat. The result 

 is a coarse powdery material which, when moistened, makes excellent fertilizer. It is also 

 used in Scandinavia for feeding cattle. The plates of whalebone are separated from their 

 attachment to the fibrous mass of the roof of the mouth, are then washed and dried in the 

 sun, sorted and packed into bales for transport. Thus the greater part of the whale is utilized, 

 and the actual waste very small. The Newfoundland companies have, through Dr. L. Riss- 

 muUer, developed sundry chemical processes for reducing and saving various parts. The 

 success of one or two companies in the early years of this fishery soon led to the erection of 

 numerous stations on the Newfoundland shores, and the inevitable depletion of the whales 

 resulted disastrously for many of those whose capital was involved. In 1914 the report of 

 the Newfoundland whaling industry showed a marked decline. Of the six ships engaged in 

 the home waters that year only one paid dividends. It secured 65 whales out of a total of 168. 

 Contrast this with the yearly average of 1500 whales for the first years succeeding 1897 when 

 the industry was started! 



The varying abundance of the whales from season to season, and the chances of the sea 

 are factors to be reckoned with in such enterprises, yet it would seem that if a factory were 

 erected on Cape Cod or Nantucket, for the rendering of whales into oil, lime, and fertilizer 

 there might be a fair chance of a reasonable income. It has even been proposed, on the Pacific 

 coast, to can the meat for ordinary consumption. Those who had tried whale meat at New- 

 foimdland, pronounced it very good, somewhat coarser than beef, but otherwise hardly inferior. 

 In Japan it is a staple article of diet. It should be added, that in the modern method of whaling, 

 small steamers are used, and that instead of bomb-lances being shot into the whale with the 

 hope that the dead animal might subsequently be found, a large harpoon, weighing over one 

 hundred pounds, and provided with an explosive cap is used. This harpoon carries a strong 

 four-inch manila cable so that it is seldom a whale is lost, and if its first efforts at flight do not 

 exhaust it, this line can be warped in until the whale is near enough for a second shot, or it may 

 be lanced from an open boat rowed alongside. 



On the Labrador coast at the present day the long jaw bones of Fin Whales are used to shoe 

 the wooden runners of the dog-sledges for winter travel. They are allowed to soak in the 

 seawater for a considerable time, which is said to harden the texture of the bone. Strips are 

 then sawed from them half an inch thick and the width of the runner, to which they are attached 

 by pegs of wood. The advantage of this sort of runner is that the snow does not stick to it. 



