CUTTING UP THE BLUBBER, 69 



casks ; we therefore take advantage of tlie fog 

 to-day to perform this necessary, but unplea- 

 sant process ; which is conducted as follows. 



There is set up across the deck, immediately 

 aft the hatchway, a sort of frame or stage of 

 stout planks, about four feet high, and sloping 

 down at an angle of about 60°, with the deck 

 at the forward side : it is perpendicular aft, and 

 at that side of it the two men who are to act as 

 " Specksioneers " (blubber-cutters) take their 

 stand, clad in oil- skin from top to toe, and 

 armed with large knives, sharp as razors, and 

 curved on the edge. The skins are then 

 hoisted out of the hold and hung across the 

 frame, two at a time, with the blubber side 

 upmost ; it is an operation requiring great 

 dexterity to separate the fat from the skin, so 

 as to remove the whole of it, and not to cut or 

 shave the skin itself, but by a sort of moio'mg 

 motion of the knife, which is held in both 

 hands, from left to right, these men do it with 

 great rapidity and neatness. As the blubber is 

 peeled off it is divided into slabs of twenty or 

 thirty pounds' weight each and thrown down 

 the hatchway, where two men are ready to 

 receive it and to slip it into the square bung 

 holes of the casks ; from its oleaginousness it 



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