82 THE CRUISE OF TEE "CACHALOT.'* 



apparently possible. The grease blew about, drenching 

 most of us engaged in an altogether unpleasant fashion, 

 while, to mend matters, the old barky began to roll and 

 tumble about in an aimless, drunken sort of way, the result 

 of a new cross swell rolling up from the south-westward. 

 As the stuff was gained, it was poured into large tanks 

 in the blubber-room, the quantity being too great to be 

 held by the try-pots at once. Twenty-five barrels of 

 this clear, wax-like substance were baled from that case ; 

 and when at last it was lowered a little, and cut away 

 from its supports, it was impossible to help thinking 

 that much was still remaining within which we, with 

 such rude means, were unable to save. Then came the 

 task of cutting up the junk. Layer after layer, eight 

 to ten inches thick, was sliced off, cut into suitable 

 pieces, and passed into the tanks. So full was the 

 matter of spermaceti that one could take a piece as large 

 as one's head in the hands, and squeeze it like a sponge, 

 expressing the spermaceti in showers, until nothing 

 remained but a tiny ball of fibre. All this soft, pulpy 

 mass was held together by walls of exceedingly tough, 

 gristly integument (" white horse "), which was as 

 difficult to cut as gutta-percha, and, but for the peculiar 

 texture, not at all unlike it. 



When we had finished separating the junk, there was 

 nearly a foot of oil on deck in the waist, and uproarious 

 was the laughter when some hapless individual, losing 

 his balance, slid across the deck and sat down with a 

 loud splash in the deepest part of the accumulation. 



The lower jaw of this whale measured exactly nine- 

 teen feet in length from the opening of the mouth, or, 

 say the last of the teeth, to the point, and carried twenty- 

 eight teeth on each side. For the time, it was hauled 



