WHALES AND WHALING 



something else ejected from the blow-holes besides vapour 

 two streams of blood, which the fishermen know is a sign 

 that all is over with him. He may live another hour, 

 making frantic little plunges that avail him nothing, but 

 he will never swim another mile. As a fresh harpoon 

 strikes him he sounds once more, this time almost without 

 a roar ; is down for a couple of minutes, then comes up 

 slowly and lying on his back. Poor whale ! his days are 

 ended ; let him bleed the more the better ; the less likely 

 he is to sink. 



And now the body must be towed, perhaps a couple of 

 miles, back to the ship ; heavy work for even four or five 

 boats 1 crews ; but at last the enormous carcass is pulled 

 alongside the larger vessel and moored to her ; and then, 

 unless they are going off after another catch, the work of 

 cutting up begins. At one time this used to be done by 

 the men standing on the body with spiked boots and cut- 

 ting off the rolls of blubber as far as they could. A more 

 recent method consisted in cutting away the flesh under 

 the mouth with spade-shaped axes ; removing the tongue, 

 and then slicing off the blubber in almost spiral strips 

 from mouth to tail, and hauling it aboard. The blubber 

 was then split into thicknesses of about half an inch and 

 boiled on deck over a furnace that was kept fierce by the 

 unmelted pieces of fatty tissue skimmed from the top of 

 the cauldron. To prevent danger from fire, there was a 

 space between the grate and the deck, through which cold 

 water constantly flowed. 



The average amount of blubber taken from a whale 

 would be about twenty-five tons. The blubber-coat lies 



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