THE A3IERICAN WHALE-FISHERY. 109 



put a great iron hook, which is fastened to a strong tackle, and also sometimes, 

 before in the ship, are fix'd two other tackle, wherewith all the fat is drawn up 

 into the ship. In the ship stand two men, with hooks as long as a man, where- 

 with they hold the great piece of fat, which the two men cut into square pieces 

 with their long knives. By them stands another, that hath a short hook with a 

 ring in his hands, which he thrusts into the pieces of fat that are cut square, and 

 puts it upon the bench or dressing -board, where it is cut by others into less 

 pieces. The two first men with their long knives, that cut the largo pieces of fat, 

 stand near the larboard of the ship, at that side where the whale is fix'd, and the 

 other men, that afterwards cut it into less pieces, stand on the other side call'd 

 starboard. When it is a good time to catch whales, and they will not lose it, they 

 tow sometimes several fish behind their ship, and catch more ; and they cut only 

 the great pieces of fat of them, and fling them underneath into the ship. But 

 when they have no more vessels to put their fat into, they sail into an harbor ; or 

 if it be calm weather, and not windy, they stay in the sea, and fasten themselves 

 to a sheet of ice, and so they drive along with the stream. The other men cut 

 the fat into small pieces, on a table ; on the further side of the table is a nail 

 fastened, whereunto they fasten a hook, which they put into the fat, that it may 

 may lye steddy when they cut it into small pieces ; the fat is tough to cut, where- 

 fore it must lie firm. That side whereon the skin is they lay undermost, and so 

 cut the fat from it by pieces. The knives wherewith they cut the fat into small 

 pieces are less than the other, about three foot long with their hafts. They all cut 

 from them that they may not be bedaubed with the fat, which might occasion a 

 shrinking -up and lameness of the sinews of their hands and arms. One of them 

 cuts the soft and tough fat into small pieces with a long knife ; this man they call 

 the chopper, and he is mightily daubed, wherefore he doth hang about him all sorts 

 of rags and clouts he can get. The fat of some whales is white, of others yellow, 

 and of some red. The white fat is full of small sinews, and it does not yield so 

 much oyl as the yellow. The yellow fat that looks like butter is the best. The 

 red and watery fat cometh from dead whales, for in the place where the fat runs 

 out the blood settles in its room, and yields the worst and least oyl. Before the 

 table is a gutter made of two boards nailed together, whereinto the small or 

 minced fat is flung; by it stands a boy that shuffles the fat by degrees into a bag 

 that is fixed to the end of the gutter, and is like unto a pudding -bag, so that it 

 reaches down into the ship ; out of this bag the fat runs down into a tub or 

 wooden funnel, which they put upon empty vessels, or cardels, as they call them, 

 and the men that are below in the ship fill them with it, and so it is kept until 



