13.] Account of ilie Greenland JVhale, 53 



The colour is black, grey, and white, and a tinge of yellow 

 about the lower parts of the head. The back, upper part of the 

 head, most of the belly, the fins, tail, and part of the under 

 jaw, are deep black. The fore part of the under jaw, and a 

 little of the belly, are white, and the junction of the tail with the 

 body grey. Such are the common colours of the adult whale. 

 I have seen piebald whales. Such whales as are below size are 

 almost entirely of a bluish-black colour. The skin of suckers is 

 of a pale bluish colour. The cuticle, or scarf-skin, is no thicker 

 than parchment; the true skin is from three-fourths to an inch in 

 thickness all over the body. 



Immediately beneath the skin lies the IhMer, or fat, from 10 

 to 20 inches in thickness, varying in different parts of the body, 

 as well as in different individuals. The colour, also, is not 

 always the same, being white, red, and yellov/; and it also 

 varies in denseness. It is principally for the blubber that the 

 Greenland fishery is carried on. It is cut from the body in large 

 lumps, and carried on board the ship, and then cut into smaller 

 pieces. The fleshy parts and skin connected with the blubber 

 are next separated from it, and it is again cut into such pieces 

 will admit of its being passed into casks by the bung-hole, 

 which is only three or four inches in diameter. In these casks it 

 is conveyed home, where it is boiled in vessels capable of con- 

 taining from three to six tons, for the purpose of extracting the 

 oil from the fritters, which are tendinous fibres, running in 

 various directions, and containing the oil, or rather connecting 

 together the cellular substance wdiich contains it. These fibres 

 are finest next the skin, thinnest in the middle, 

 and coarsest near the flesh. 



The annexed table shows the quantity of oil a 

 whale of each size of bone will produce at a me- 

 dium. 



The blubber of a sucker, when very young, 

 frequently contains little or no oil, but only a 

 kind of milky fluid ; in which case, when the 

 animal is deprived of life, the body sinks to the 

 bottom, as also does the blubber when separated 

 from it ; while the body and blubber of larger in- 

 dividuals always swim. Though the preceding 

 statement be exceedingly near the truth, yet ex- 

 ceptions occur; for I have known a whale of 2^ feet bone produce 

 10 tons of oil, and one of 12 feet bone estimated at only \) tons; 

 such instances are much rarer than to see one of 24- feet bone 

 produce 4 or 5 tons of oil. 



The flesh of the young whale is of a fine red colour 5 that of 

 the old approaches to black, and is coarse^ like that of a hu\ 



2 



3 



4 

 5 

 6 

 7 

 8 

 9 

 10 

 11 

 12 



Oil ia 

 Tons. 



3 



Si 

 4 



7 

 9 



13 

 16 

 20 



