182 



PORTER S JOURNAL. 



infest the coast. The smugghng business is monopolized 

 entirely by the governors, they allowing no other person 

 whatever to have any concern in it, unless well paid for 

 granting the privilege. 



When the whale is killed, and brought along side the ship, 

 the separating the head from the body, bailing the hquid 

 oil or head matter from the case which contains it, and 

 flinching the whale, or separating the blubber or thick fat 

 from the carcase, as well as trying out the oil, cooling, 

 straining, starting it below, coopering the casks, and fre- 

 quently wetting and examining them, are all laborious ope- 

 rations, and which it is supposed every one who undertakes 

 to conduct the voyage must be acquainted with, before he 

 engages in the business. If the voyage is successful, every 

 thing that can be made to contain oil is fdled with it, even 

 to the buoys of their anchors, jugs, cans, kids, and buckets ; 

 and it is no uncommon thing for the oil contained in such 

 small articles to amount to a sum sufficient to pay all the 

 disbursements of a vessel during a voyage of two years. 

 On their arrival in England their cargoes are worth from 

 one hundred and fifty thousand to two hundred thousand 

 dollars, when oil is at a fair price, which is fmm one hun- 

 dred to one hundred and ten pounds sterling the ton. 

 With good management and proper industry, to which ali 

 are stimulated by the hopes of gain, these voyages general- 

 ly turn out to great advantage, and are never known to fail, 

 unless from shipwreck, or some other unavoidable disaster. 

 Vessels which come into this sea for the purpose of taking; 

 spermaceti oil, never consider it an object to take other 

 whales, although they are so abundant that they would be 

 enabled, in a very short time, to fjll up their cargoes with 

 the oil ; but it is, when taken, of But little value when com- 

 pared with the spermaceti, and a full cargo in England 

 would not defray the expenses of the outfits. To those 

 unacquainted with the business, it seems a mystery how 

 they are enabled to determine the class of whales before 

 they are taken. An expert whaler will, however, by the 

 manner of his spouting, (at the greatest distance the spout 

 can be seen,) tell in an instant whether it be a hump-back, 

 fin-back, black whale, right whale, (or whale producing the 

 whalebone,) or spermaceti whale. The latter is remark- 

 able for throwing the water directly forward, and making 



