92 



VOYAGE TO SPITZBERGEN. 



old whales have a broad white strip over their back 

 down to the belly. 



Their skin is smooth, lubricated, and about one 

 inch thick. I haxl a book bound with some of 

 the epidermis, or scarf-skin, which I brought 

 home, but it did not altogether answer the pur- 

 pose. 



Their bodies, immediately under the skin, are 

 covered with a layer of fat, called blubber, from 

 12 to 1 S inches thick in large fish. This, in young 

 whales, resembles hog's lard ; but in old ones it is 

 of a reddish colour. A large whale will produce 

 12, 20, and sometimes 25 tuns of oil, which now 

 sells at from £30 to £40 per tun. 



Mr. Scoresby, jun. in a description of the Balaena 

 mysticetus, published in the memoirs of the Wer- 

 nerian Society of Edinburgh, gives the following 

 table of the ordinary quantity of oil produced from 

 whales of different sizes of bones : 



