W H A 



W H A 



from the inteftines, the Greenlanders prepare windows. See 

 Boops. 



Whale, Round-lipped, or Broad-nofed, or Under-jawed, 

 BaUna Mufiulus of Linnseus, is charaClerifed by having 

 the lower lip broader than the upper, and of a femicircular 

 form. See Musculus. 



Whale, Bunched, BaUna Gibbofa of Linnxus, with one 

 or more gibbous excrefcences on the back, and without dor- 

 fal fins: the knotenfifch oder knobbelfifch of Anderfon 

 and Crantz. This fpecies is a native of the Northern feas, 

 and though not much known, is faid to be of the fame 

 general form with tlie great whale, but of fmaller fize, and 

 having its back furnifhed with one or more tubercles. The 

 variety with a fingle tubercle is found about the coafts of 

 New England ; the other with fix tubercles along the back 

 is fuppofed to fwarm about the coafts of Greenland. Their 

 whale-bone is faid to be of a pale or whitifh colour. 



Whale Spermaceti, See Cachalot, Physeter, and 

 Spermaceti. 



See on the fubjefts of the preceding articles, Pontopid- 

 dan's Nat. Hift. of Norway, vol. ii. p. 1 18, &c. Crantz's 

 Hill, of Greenland, vol. i. p. 106, &c. Pennant's Brit. 

 Zool. vol. iii. p. 50, &c. Phil. Tranf. abr. vol. viii. p. 424, 

 &c. Shaw's Zoology, vol. ii. 



"WnALK-Blubber, in Agriculture, the fat oilyrefufe matter 

 left in making the oil from that fifh. It is a material which 

 has been ufed as a manure in fome cafes with fuccefs, efpe- 

 cially when employed in mixture with clayey loam, fandy 

 loam, or any other common earthy or mouldy fubllances. 

 Thefe matters Ihould be blended together in fuch a manner, 

 it is faid by the writer of the " Elements of Agricaltural 

 Chemiitry," as to expofe a large furface to the aftion of the 

 air, the oxygen of which produces foluble matter from them. 

 It is obferved, too, that lord Somerville made ufeof this oily 

 fubftance with great fuccefs on his farm, in the county of 

 Surrey ; in which cafe it was made into a large heap with 

 foil, and retained its powers of fertiUzing for feveral fuc- 

 ceffive years. 



It is noticed, that carbon and hydrogen abounding fo 

 much in this as well as other oily fubltances, fully account 

 for their effefts ; and that their durabihty is eafily explained 

 from the very gradual manner in which they change by the 

 aftion of the air and water on them, as muft obvioully be 

 the cafe. 



This fatty material, in this fort of union with earthy mat- 

 ters, may confequently be a very beneficial application in 

 many cafes of tillage-land, efpecially where the fuperficial 

 bed of mould or foil is rather of the thin kind. It may 

 alfo be very ufeful as a top-dreffing to grafs-land, particu- 

 larly where the fward is thin, tender, and not well fet with 

 grafly herbage, as tending not only to promote the growth 

 of the crops, but the clofenefs and firmnefs of the furface 

 fwardy covering. See Manure, and Oil Compojl. 



It (hould therefore be preferved and procured as much as 

 poffible for thefe ufes and applications. 



WHALE-5on^, a commodity procured from the whifkers 

 ef the whale, ufed as a ftiffening in ftays, fans, bulks, fcreens, 

 &c. See Whale fupra. 



Frederick Martens has particularly defcribed the whale- 

 bone and the method of procuring it in his " Voyage to Spitz- 

 bergen." Within the mouth of the fifh is the whale-bone, 

 hairy as a horfe's hair, and hanging down from both fides, all 

 about his tongue. In fome whales the whale-bone is bent 

 like a fcymitar, and in others like a half-moon. The fmalleft 

 whale -bone is before in his mouth, and behind towards his 

 throat ; and the middlemoft is the largeft and the longeft, 

 being fometimes about two or three men's length. On one 



fide, all in a row, there are 250 pieces of whale-bone, and 

 as many on the other, containing in all 500 ; and there are 

 ftill many more, for the cutters let the leaft of all remain, 

 becaufe they cannot eafily come at it to cut it out, on ac- 

 count of the meeting of the two lips, where the fpace is 

 very narrow. The whale-bone is in a flat row, one piece 

 by the other, fomewhat bending within, and towards the 

 lips every where like a half -moon. It is broad at the 

 top, where it flicks fall to the upper lip, every where 

 overgrown with hard white finews towards the root, fo that 

 between two pieces of whale..bone you may put your hand. 

 Thefe white finews are of an agreeable fmell, break very 

 eafily, and may be boiled and eaten. Where the whale-bone 

 is the broadefl, as underneath by the root, there groweth fmall 

 whale-bone, the other being greater. The fmall whale-bone, 

 as Mr. Martens fuppofes, does not grow bigger ; from one 

 end to the other it is equally thick, and full of long jacks, 

 like horfe's hair. The whale-bone is underneath narrow 

 and pointed, and all overgrown with hair, that it may not 

 hurt that which is young ; but vnthout the whale-bone has 

 a cavity, for it is turned like a gutter, in which the water 

 runs, where it lies the one over the other, like the fhields 

 or plates of craw-fifh, or the pantiles of an houfe, that lie 

 one over the other ; for otherwife it might eafily wound or 

 hurt the under lip. To cut the whale-bone out is a parti- 

 cular operation, and many iron tools are ufed for this pur- 

 pofe. Some whale-bone is of a brown, black, or yellow 

 colour, with ftreaks of feveral colours. The whale -bones 

 of fome whales are blue and light-blue, which latter are 

 fuppofed to come from young whales. 



Whale- /'/nx, a name improperly given to whale-bone. 



WHALU-FiJhery. See Fishery. 



Whale Oil. See Oil. 



Mr. Parkes ( Effays, vol. i. ) obferves, that the dealer in 

 Greenland whale oil might alio increafe the profits of his trade 

 very much, by preparing his oil for fale when the weather is 

 fuitable for the operation. This kind of oil is always purified 

 by palling it through large flannel bags, which retain the im- 

 purities, and fuffer the finer parts to percolate through them. 

 When the oil has undergone this treatment, it is called bagged 

 oil, and is then deemed fit for fale. At a low temperature, a 

 confiderable quantity even of this latter kind would concrete, 

 and might be feparated by fimilar means ; whereas in a 

 warm atmofphere this diffolves, and, being lefs inflammable, 

 very much injures the oil for burning. 



By proper attention to this circumftance, all the oil which 

 is defigned for burning might be very much improved, and 

 the portion thus feparated from it, would be worth more to 

 the foap manufafturer for making yellow foap, than fimilar 

 oil which had not undergone this procefs. 



This intelligent chemifl conceives, that an oil-merchant 

 would do well always to bag different oils in different fea- 

 fons ; though many experiments might be neceffary before 

 it could be afcertained what was the exaft temperature at 

 which the refpeftive kinds would moft; copioully depofit this 

 feculence. After obferving that in feveral parts of Germany, 

 and particularly in the neighbourhood of Gottenburgh, am- 

 monia is prepared from the dregs which remain after the 

 expreffion of train-oil, he fuggefls that whale -blubber might be 

 employed for the diftillation of ammonia. Madder, he fays, 

 might be devifed for correfting its offenfive fmell, and render- 

 ing it very produftive of volatile alkali. See Ammonia. 



Whale Bank, in Geography, a fifhing-bank on the coaft of 

 Newrfoundland, 60 miles long, and 21 wide ; 90 miles S. of 

 Cape Mary. N. lat. 45°. W. long. 53° 50'. 



Whale Cove, a bay of the Atlantic, on the north coafl 

 of the iiland of Manan, near the coaft of Maine. 



Whale 



