190 ZOOLOGY. 



devoted. Not only has the South-Seaman, in common 

 with the merchant- vessel, to bear her cargo from distant 

 quarters of the globe, but also the additional task of 

 procuring that cargo, as it swims on the ocean, un- 

 certain in quantity and place, and as yet identical with 

 living, gigantic, and often dangerous animals. To the 

 Northern or Greenland whale-ship the same observa- 

 tion applies. South-Seamen, however, advance a step 

 beyond their prototypes of the. North, inasmuch as 

 while they collect, they may also be said to manufacture 

 their cargo, by the practice they pursue of separating 

 the useful from the more cumbrous and unimportant 

 parts of the whales they capture ; and thus, (in the 

 place of the putrefied mass which composes the lading 

 of a Greenland ship,) bringing their freight to port in a 

 state but little less pure than when it passes into the 

 hands of the consumer a distinction which is secured 

 to these vessels by the unlimited time allowed them to 

 prosecute their labours in genial climates the necessity, 

 entailed by their long and distant voyages, that they 

 should condense their cargo, and thus increase its 

 value as well as by the detriment which would accrue 

 to the quality of the oil they supply, did they adopt the 

 same summary plan as the northern whale-ship. 



In external appearance, the South-Seaman is prin- 

 cipally distinguished from the ordinary merchant-ship 

 by the number and form of her boats ; by the presence 

 of some short spars, affixed to one of her sides, to pro- 

 tect the hull when the blubber is being removed from 

 the whale to the deck ; and, when cruising, by her lofty 

 spars being down, her sail shortened, and her mast- 

 heads manned. Interiorly, one side of the deck, at the 

 waist of the ship, has a platform, or covering of planks, 

 to receive the more bulky parts of the whale, taken on 



