426 WHALE FISHERY. 



still farther, both in this country and Europe. The parts 

 of the animal are converted to a great variety of purposes. 

 The flesh, though rejected by Europeans, is the principal 

 food of many savage tribes on the coast of the northern 

 seas. They construct, lalso, windows of some thin semi- 

 transparent membranes found in the animal ; they make 

 weapons of war from the bones, and cords from the sin- 

 ews^. The chief articles of value, however, are the oil, 

 and the whalebone, as it is called. This latter substance 

 is not properly bone. It is found in laminae in the mouth 

 of the animal, in the place of teeth. 



3. The very interesting Nature of the Fishery. The 

 excitement, the danger, the magnitude of the object of 

 the chase, conspire to throw an intensity of interest about 

 this subject, which can be found in very few of the modes 

 in which human ingenuity and enterprise are exerted. 

 For the above reasons we shall present, chiefly from 

 the writings of Capt. Scoresby, the universal authority on 

 this subject, a full description of the whale fishery. Capt. 

 Scoresby was a whalemen himself and he united to the 

 most favorable opportunities of observation, a mind ad- 

 mirably adapted to seize on the striking and prominent 

 features of a scene, and to describe them with vividness 

 and force. 



INSTRUMENTS USED IN THE WHALE FISHERY. 



Whale Ships. The ships are fitted out for this pur 

 pose with apparatus for taking the whale, cutting up the 

 animal, and extracting the oil, and also with a large 

 supply of casks to contain it. They sail so as to be upon 

 the fishing stations in the northern latitudes, in the spring 

 of the year. 



Whale Boats. A whale boat is constructed in such 

 a manner that it differs in many important respects from 

 other boats. It if lighter, more easily turned, it moves 

 more swiftly. They are twenty or twenty five feet long, 

 and between five and six feet wide. 



Weapons. The chief weapon is the harpoon, of which 

 the adjoining cut 



is a rcpresenta- ^ ^- -7 



tion. The part 

 marked m is call- ^ 





