xiv MODE OF CAPTURE 201 



round the body of the whale, the blubber is stripped off 

 from head to tail, much as a spiral roller or bandage might 

 be, the body of the whale meanwhile performing a rotatory 

 motion. When the blubber is brought on board, it is cut up 

 into smaller pieces, and either stowed in casks or tanks to be 

 brought home to undergo the next process, that of " trying 

 out," or if the voyage is of lengthened duration, as in the case 

 of the South Sea whalers hailing from European or American 

 ports, this is done on board the ship. It simply consists of 

 boiling the blubber in large iron pots until the oil is separated 

 from the mesh of cellular tissue which contained it, the latter 

 being generally used for fuel in subsequent boilings. In the 

 case of the sperm whale the upper surface of the great head is 

 opened, and the liquid spermaceti is baled out of the cavities 

 which contain it, and in the case of the whalebone whales the 

 whalebone is removed from the mouth. All the rest of the 

 animal being useless is turned adrift into the sea, and speedily 

 becomes the prey of voracious sharks and other fish and sea 

 birds. When whales are caught near the shore, as in many of 

 the " fisheries," from boats without the intervention of sea- 

 going vessels, they are towed into shallow water for the 

 purpose of flensing and removing the whalebone. 



The earliest known regular whale fishery is that which took 

 place from the Basque towns of France and Spain, Bayonne, 

 Biarritz, St. Jean de Luz, Fuenterrabia, St. Sebastian, Guetaria, 

 Ondarroa, and many others. From the tenth century onwards 

 the hardy fishermen of the towns and villages of this coast 

 pursued the Atlantic right whales in the Bay of Biscay, at 

 first only catching them from open boats near the shore, 

 but afterwards, as the whales became more scarce and the 

 whalers more adventurous, following them in ships across the 

 Atlantic to the Bermudas, Newfoundland, and Iceland. From 

 this source all the whale oil and all the whalebone used by 

 our forefathers down to the year 1600 was derived. Queen 

 Elizabeth and all her court depended upon the Basque fisher- 

 men for the most prominent characteristics of their costume. 

 The supply was, however, diminishing when the attempt to 

 discover the North-East route to China, about the close of the 

 sixteenth century, led to the opening up of the sea between 



