200 WHALES AND WHALE FISHERIES xiv 



including devices by which they explode within the body of 

 the victim. Long straight spears or lances are also used to 

 despatch the animal when it has been secured by the line 

 attached to the harpoon. The whale is always approached 

 by rowing in a boat as closely to it as necessary. These boats 

 may be directly connected with a station on the coast or with 

 a ship out at sea. This gives rise to the primary division of 

 whale fishing into two principal methods : shore fishing and 

 open-sea fishing, both of which are extensively practised in 

 various parts of the world. In the first, a look out is kept 

 from a station on some projecting headland, and when a whale 

 appears within sight signals are given on which the boats go 

 out in pursuit, and when a capture takes place the body is 

 towed to shore for the purpose of obtaining its valuable 

 products. In the second, the ships sail to some distant part 

 of the open sea, where it is supposed that whales are likely to 

 be met with. The look out is kept from the " crow's nest " 

 on the masthead, and the boats being all in readiness row out 

 in pursuit the moment a whale is sighted, and if successful 

 tow their prey to the side of the vessel. 



As I mentioned before, all cetaceans have immediately 

 beneath their skin, and closely connected with it, a very 

 dense layer of what is called " blubber," in large whales as 

 much as a foot in thickness, composed of a network of cellular 

 tissue, the interspaces of which are filled with oil. This 

 layer, though so adherent to the outer skin as to be separated 

 from it with difficulty, is only connected with the flesh or 

 muscles which lie below by loose tissue, and so is easily 

 stripped off. With a large whale this process, called " flens- 

 ing," is effected as follows. If the animal is caught at sea, 

 the carcass is lashed alongside the ship, and men with spikes 

 in their shoes, descend upon the slippery surface, and with 

 large sharp -edged spades perform the cutting part of the 

 operation, having first fixed, by means of a hook, a strong rope 

 into the blubber at the junction of the head and the body. 

 This rope runs over pulleys fixed to the rigging of the ship, 

 and the blubber, separated by the spades into strips about 

 two or three feet broad, is gradually hauled up on to the 

 deck of the ship. The cuts being made in a spiral direction 



