APPENDIX I 
Whale-oil can be readily transformed into glycerine : it is used 
in the manufactnre of soap, and quite recently, both in this country 
and in Norway, it has been refined by means of a simple hardening 
process into a highly palatable and nutritious margarine. War- 
time conditions emphasized the importance of the whale-oil, and 
fortunately the supply was fairly constant for the production of the 
enormous quantities of glycerine required by the country in the 
manufacture of explosives. In relation to the food-supply it was no 
less important in saving the country from a " fat " famine when the 
country was confronted with the shortage of vegetable and other 
animal oUs. The production of guano, bone-meal, and fiesh-meal 
may pay off the running expenses of a whaling-station, but their 
value lies, perhaps, more in their individual properties. Flesh-meal 
makes up into cattle-cake, which forms an excellent fattening food 
for cattle, while bone-meal and guano are very effective fertihzers. 
Guano is the meat — genera^lly the residue of distillation — which 
goes through a process of drying and disintegration, and is ruixed 
with the crushed bone in the proportion of two parts flesh to one 
part bone. This is done chiefly at the shore stations, and to a less 
extent on floating factories, though so far on the latter it has not 
proved very profitable. Whale flesh, though slightly greasy perhaps 
and of strong flavour, is quite palatable, and at South Georgia it 
made a welcome addition to our bill of fare— the flesh of the hump- 
back being used. A large supply of whale flesh was "shipped" as 
food for the dogs on the journey South, and this was eaten raven- 
ously. It is interesting to note also the successful rearing of pigs 
at South Georgia — chiefly, if not entirely, on the whale products. 
The whalebone or baleen plates, which at one time formed the 
most valuable article of the Arctic fishery, may here be regarded 
as of secondary importance. The baleen plates of the southern 
right whale reach only a length of about 7 ft., and have been valued 
at £750 per ton, but the number of these whales captured is very 
small indeed. In the case of the other whalebone whales, the baleen 
plates are much smaller and of inferior quahty — the baleen of the 
sei-whale probably excepted, and this only makes about £85 per ton. 
Sperm-whales have been taken at South Georgia and the South 
Shetlands, but never in any quantity, being more numerous in 
warmer seas. The products and their value are too well known to 
be repeated. 
The Endurance reached South Georgia on November 5, 1914, 
and anchored in King Edward Cove, Cumberland Bay, ofl" Grytviken, 
the shore station of the Argentina Pesca Company. Dm^ing the 
month's stay at the island a considerable amount of time was de- 
voted to a study of the whales and the whaling industry, in the^in- 
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