238 MARINE MAMMALS OF THE NORTH-WESTERN COAST. 
it and the skull -bone; then, cutting across the end of the junk and root of the 
case, from E to F, completes the process of cutting off the head, which is tempo- 
rarily made fast to the ship's quarter. The fluke -chain is then hauled in again, 
and the blubber is rolled from the body in the same manner as that of a baleen 
whale, until coming to the region of the small, when it is unjointed just behind 
the vent, and the remaining posterior portion of the animal is hoisted on board in 
one mass. The head, as it is termed, is then hauled to the gangway, and one of 
the tackles is hooked into the junk -strap at J, and by means of this cutting- 
tackle purchase, the head is taken in whole, if the whale is under forty barrels ; 
but if over that size, it is raised sufficiently out of the water to cut the junk from 
the case, when it is hoisted on deck. The case is then secured by one or both 
tackles, hove up to the plank -sheer, and an opening is made at its root, of a 
suitable size to admit the case -bucket, when the oil is bailed out, or the whole 
case is hove in on deck before being opened, which finishes the cutting -in of a 
Sperm "Whale. 
The entire blubber being now on board, preparations are immediately made for 
trying-out the oil. The blanket -pieces are cut into horse-pieces, which are about 
fifteen or eighteen inches long, and six or eight inches in breadth and thickness. 
Any flesh termed "lean," or "fat-lean," that may adhere to the horse-pieces, is cut 
off with leaning- knives ; and being thus prepared, the blubber is transported in 
strap -tubs to the mincing -horse — where the 
ordinary two-handled knife is used — or else 
is taken to the mincing machine, where it is 
MINCING KNIFE. 
cut crosswise into slices a quarter of an inch 
to a half inch in thickness; then it goes into a large mincing- tub, which completes 
its preparation for boiling. From the mincing -tub it is pitched into the try -pots 
with the blubber- fork, where the oil is extracted by boiling. During this process, 
the minced blubber is frequently stirred, to prevent it from burning and settling 
to the bottom of the pots ; and when the scraps are sufficiently browned to show 
that the oil is well tried out, they are skimmed off with the skimmer into a recep- 
tacle called the scrap -hopper, and, after the oil drains from them, they furnish an 
abundant supply of fuel for the fires. 
From the pots, the oil is bailed with the bailer into a large copper tank 
called a cooler; from the cooler, it passes through a cock into the deck -pot; and 
from the deck- pot the casks are filled. When a cask is full, it is rolled off and 
headed up, and in rough weather it is lashed to the ship's rail for greater secu- 
rity. The oil, after passing through the cooler and deck -pot, is still very hot, if 
