156 SPOKT IN NORTH AMERICA. 



aboardj for the sake of the whalebone. The rest of 

 the body was given up to the sharks and birds of 

 prey, which came from every quarter of the compass, 

 and deafened us with their cries. 



The blubber of the whale was laid out between 

 decks, in layers almost three feet broad by ten to 

 fourteen inches thick, and eighteen to twenty feet 

 long. It was afterwards cut into pieces and 

 thrown into large cauldrons, which were rigged up at 

 the foot of the mizen-mast. All day and night the 

 crew were busily employed melting the blubber, and 

 the sailors fed the fire with scraps soaked in oil. To 

 see these fellows employed in this horrible culinary 

 operation (the stench of which was abominable), one 

 would have thought them a troop of demons making 

 some charm or cooking for a witches' Sabbath. Our 

 ears were, in the meantime, regaled with songs, 

 sung with all the nasal twang of the Yankee, and of 

 the music of which Hossini, Bellini, and even Verdi 

 were entirely innocent. 



Next morning early, our sailing captain (who had 

 left all the fishing operations to the undivided super- 

 intendence of the other "twin") set sail for New 

 York. As the Jackson was sailing on the larboard 

 tack, we held to the S.S.W., with a free wind and 

 all sails set, stern sails and topgallant-sails, the 

 foresails well filled, and the ensign hoisted. We 

 spanked on at eleven knots an hour, and the crew 

 was busily employed in stowing away the barrels of 



