196 THE REASON WHY: 



"Pampered with meats full, spermacetic, and fat." DRAYTON. 



Whalebone forms one of the objects of the Greenland whale fishery, but it is 

 not the chief. The principal reward arising from the perilous employment of so 

 many men and ships is to be found in the large quantities of oil which are obtained 

 from the thick cutaneous layer of fat, or blubber, as it is usually termed. A whale 

 sixty feet in length will frequently yield more than twenty tons of pure oil ; and 

 some of the pieces of baleen are twelve feet long. It is for these prizes that men 

 willingly expose themselves to the rigour of an arctic winter, the chance of falling 

 victims to the united effects of cnld and hunger, or shipwreck in its most horrid 

 form, occasioned by the irresistible crush of icebergs ; and should the hardy 

 mariner escape from dangers such as these, the harpooner not unfrequently perishes 

 from the upsetting of the boat, owing to the violent plunges which the wounded 

 animal makes in the water, or the whirlpool produced by his rapidly rushing 

 down into the deep.* 



587. What is spennaceti? 



It is a substance which concretes and crystallizes spontaneously 

 out of the oil of the spermaceti whale. It forms a very pure oil 

 for lamps, and is used in various ways in the arts and medicine. 



588. In the right side of the nose and head of the cachalot or spermaceti whale, is 

 a large, almost triangular-shaped cavity, called by whalers the "case," which is 

 lined with a beautifully glistening membrane, and covered by a thick layer of 

 muscular fibres and small tendons running in various directions, and, finally, by the 

 common integuments. This cavity is for the purpose of secreting and containing 

 the spermaceti. The size of the case may be estimated, when it is stated that in a 

 large whale it not unfrequently contains upwards of a ton, or more than ten large 

 barrels of oil. 



The pursuit of the sperm whale is accompanied with great danger. " In 

 calm weather, great difficulty is sometimes experienced in approaching the whale, 

 on account of the quickness of his sight and hearing. Under these circumstances 

 the fishers have recourse to paddles instead of oars, and by this means can quietly 

 get near enough to make use of the harpoon. When first struck, the whale 

 generally ' sounds,' or descends perpendicularly to an amazing depth, taking out, 

 perhaps, the lines belonging to four boats, 800 fathoms ! Afterwards, when 

 weakened with loss of blood and fatigue, he becomes unable to sound, but passes 

 rapidly along the surface, towing after him perhaps three or four boats. If hu 

 does not turn, the men in the boats draw in the line by which they are attached to 

 the whale, and thus easily come up with him, even when going with great Telocity { 

 he is then lanced, and soon killed." 



Maunder's "Treasury.** 



