182 THE WHALEMAN S ADVENTURES. 



successful enterprise. Though not myself head 

 and ears over in blubber-juice like all the rest, 

 nor in for any share of the profits, I ever took, 

 perhaps, as curious and eager an interest in the 

 processes going on as any one on board. All 

 the ordinary muxing and skimshander with 

 which active ones keep themselves busy on board 

 whale ships when there is no work to do, are 

 laid aside now. The cooper's driver is merry a- 

 going on the great oil casks; the decks are 

 lumbered, and full of gurry and dirt ; and every 

 body and everything is besmeared with oil, and 

 will be so until a strong ley they make from the 

 ashes of the scraps has washed all clean. 



It is almost worth taking one cruise in a 

 whale ship to see how they capture and dispose 

 of their gigantic game, and to learn some odd 

 things a man can never know otherwise. Had 

 Noah Webster ever gone a whaling, he would 

 have been able to add some five or six notable 

 and genuine English words to his Dictionary, 

 which may never be known off salt water unless 

 we record them here. 



Mux and skimshander are the general names 



