Sketches Afloat with the Whalers 277 



blubber near the eye, and the officers cut through the 

 blubber in such a way as to release a long strip. 

 When the tackle had been run up as high as 

 possible another one was hooked into the blubber 

 at the level of the scaffolding and then the part 

 above this tackle was cut loose with a long- 

 handled, long-bladed knife, called a boarding 

 knife. The big pieces of blubber thus secured 

 were called blanket pieces, and they were from 

 three to six feet wide by perhaps twenty feet 

 long. They were lowered into the hold as fast 

 as secured, until the body was stripped. The 

 head was then cared for. The head of the sperm 

 whale was peculiar. The lower jaw was long 

 and slender. The part above the mouth was 

 composed of a tough gristle called "white-horse." 

 Above that was a boneless layer of blubber called 

 the "junk," and above that a huge cell really 

 a great tank that was filled with a superior 

 quality of oil in a liquid condition. The entire 

 head of a small sperm whale was hoisted in on 

 deck and there cut up. The lower jaw of a large 

 sperm whale was taken in first of all; then the 

 "white-horse" and "junk" were separated and 



