146 A YEAR WITH A WHALER 



of pink and opalescent fat from six inches to 

 two feet thick. The blubber is so full of oil that 

 the oil exudes from it. One can squeeze the oil 

 from a piece of raw blubber as water from a 

 sponge. 



The two blubber-room men with short handled 

 spades cut the great blankets of blubber in what 

 in whaling parlance are called " horse pieces." 

 These horse pieces are two or three feet long 

 and about six inches wide. They are pitched 

 into tubs on deck and the tubs dragged forward 

 to the mincing vat. This is an immense oblong 

 tub across the top of which is fastened a plank. 

 Two sailors with mincing knives are stationed 

 at each end of the plank. The mincing knife 

 is like a carpenter's drawing knife, except that 

 the edge is on the outside. The sailor lays a 

 horse piece along the plank. Then grasping 

 the mincing knife by its two handles, he passes 

 the blade back and forth from side to side across 

 the blubber until it has been cut into leaves 

 something like those of a book, each leaf per- 

 haps a quarter of an inch thick and all of them 

 held together at the back by the black skin. Thus 

 minced the horse pieces are pitch-forked intd 



