Whaling as a Business Enterprise 339 



to linen in the laundry, and to some extent in 

 medicine. Sperm oil is used as a lubricant and 

 in softening leather in the tanneries. Crude whale 

 oil when refined yields oil and a substance called 

 whalefoots. Whale oil is used in ropewalks, 

 and it is mixed with black lead and paraffin to 

 make a lubricant. Some of it is used in making 

 a soap that is used by gardeners in destroying 

 insects; but most of the so-called whale-oil soap 

 is made of inferior fish oils. The whalefoots is 

 used by tanners. As all women know, the whale- 

 bone is used in corsets to give distinction to the 

 human form. Steel stays are in common use, 

 but no metal has yet been found that will take 

 the place of the ever elastic whalebone. The 

 best whips are made with a heart of whalebone. 

 On the whole, the uses of whale products are 

 few in number, but each has thus far held a place 

 which nothing else could fill. 



