58 MAMMALIA. 



races of ttese marine Mammalia will be totally destroyed by this 

 mode of attack. 



To complete our account of the whaling procedure we must say 

 something about the cutting up of the animal, and of the meltiag 

 down of the blubber into oil. 



When the Whale is dead it is made fast alongside of the ship, 

 belly upwards, its tail forwards and its nose level with the stern of 

 the vessel. It is not without great difficulty that this enormous 

 mass, which just now traversed the sea with such facility, can be 

 towed so as to be landed on the shore. 



In olden times the fishermen of the north of Europe used to cut 

 up the Whale by going upon its carcass, provided with boots 

 furnished with cramp-irons. They thus stripped oif bands of 

 blubber along the whole length of the animal, from head to tail. 

 But this way of cutting iip the Whale was long, difficult, and even 

 dangerous. 



The whalers in the Southern Ocean have a better way of 

 proceeding : this consists in cutting out, along the whole length of 

 the animal's body, a broad continuous band shaped like a screw, 

 beginning at the head and only finishing at the tail, very nearly 

 in the sam.e way in which <;hildi'en proceed when they are taking 

 ofP the peel of an oranga 



Dr. Thiercelin relates in great detail the operation of cutting up, 

 upon which we are unable to dwell longer here. Suffice it to say 

 that they sap, by means of sharp spades, one side of the imder 

 lip, and that they take away this part ; that they then detach the 

 tongue, which weighs many thcnisands of kilogrammes ; then the 

 other half >oi the lip ; next the upper jaw, with its whalebone 

 plates, which are becoming more and 'more sought after in 

 commerce every day. Then they begin to cut a thick band of 

 grease and skin, which they keep on detaching, bawling up on 

 board, and stowing away. It is thus that they unwind, as we 

 may say, the Whale, making its body turn round on itself. In 

 the background of Fig. 17 (page 66) which represents the pursuit 

 of the Whale, we see the operation of cutting up in pieces going 

 on on board of another ship. 



In the southern seas the carcass is no sooner cast ofi^ and set 

 adrift from the ship than it is literally covered with birds, par- 

 ticularly Petrels and Albatrosses. The Sharks come also and take 



