196 VERTEBRATES. 



off the tipper side by " blubber spades." The blocks of blubber, 

 calle'd "slips," are then hauled up on deck by means of ropes 

 called' "speck tackles," speck being the German word for fat or 

 bacon. When the blubber is all stripped from the upper side, the 

 men turn the whale partly round by hauling at the rope fastened 

 to the " kent." Then then cut out the whalebone with knives 

 made for that purpose. Lastly, the "kent" itself is stripped off, 

 and the whale left to the sharks and gulls, who have been helping 

 themselves very liberally while the flensing was going on. The 

 shovel-nosed shark sometimes scoops out semicircular pieces as 

 large as a man's head. 



When the crew have time, the blubber, which has been 

 stowed away in a place with a not very polished name, is " made 

 off," that is, carefully stripped of the pieces of skin and muscle 

 adhering to it, cut into moderately sized pieces, and packed in 

 casks until wanted. The oil is extracted by boiling the blubber 

 in large coppers j a most unsavory occupation, but a very pleasant 

 one to the crew, if they take that duty upon themselves. The 

 refuse blubber is used as fuel, so that there is no waste. 



The Cachalot. — The chase of the Cachalot is similar to 

 that of the Greenland Whale, and need not be described. It is 

 attended with more danger, as the terrific row of teeth with which 

 the lower jaw of the Cachalot is armed, is not unfrequently em- 

 ployed in biting the boat. In the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford 

 is an under jaw-bone of this whale, sixteen and a half feet in 

 length, containing forty-eight huge teeth. Besides this method ' 

 of defence, it has a very unpleasant habit of swimming off to a 

 distance, and then rushing at the boat with its head, thereby 

 knocking it to pieces. One of these whales actually sank a ship 

 by three or four blows from its head. 



This tribe is not of such enormous size as the whale, pro- 

 perly so called, not being above sixty feet long, and sixteen feet 

 high. In consequence of their being more slender, they are much 

 more . active than the common whale ; they remain a longer time 

 at the bottom ; and afford a smaller quantity of oil. As in the 

 common whale the head was seen to make a third part of its bulk. 



