90 
TEINIDAD. 
billow to the fishery. Once there the fish is secured 
alongside the shears, and men soon begin to peal off his 
jacket of blubber by means of sharp spades. A piece, 
say two feet by four feet, is cut off, and hoisted on shore 
by winch, cut up into pieces six inches square, and 
thrown into the coppery to be boiled down into oil ; the 
refuse makes famous fuel. But while men are busy 
other folks are not idle. J ack Shark is particularly fond 
of a slice of whale, and hence he makes it his business 
to be there on the spot, though, poor fellow, he often 
gets (as I have seen), a cut of the spade instead, and 
then his brethren, as he rolls over and over to the 
bottom, leave the whale (cannibals that they are), and 
straightway commence to dine off' their wdiilom com- 
rade. The flesh beneath the blubber is not unlike coarse 
beef in appearance, and is much sought after by the 
poor fishermen who live near the whale fishery. I 
have tasted whale-beef, but cannot say it is very tempt- 
ing, though it is not positively uneatable. 
After the blubber is cut off, and the valuable bones 
extracted, and what meat is wanted taken, the carcase 
(an unsightly mass), is towed out and left for the sharks 
and corbeaux, or vultures, to prey upon — the foi’mer 
beneath, and the latter above. The tide soon carries it 
out of the bocas, and nothing more is seen of it. 
Juvenile whalers, however, make good use of the car- 
case as it is floating aAvay. They surround it in small 
fishing canoes, and harjAOon the innumerable sharks 
which are busily engaged in feasting upon the whale. 
As they secure a shark they haul him alongside tlieir 
boat, open the entrails, take out the liver, and let the 
shark go. I suppose they must die, unless tliey arc so 
tenacious of life as to live without livers, as it is said 
dogs can live without their spleens. The liver of the 
shark is boiled down, and the oil is sold to the chemists, 
and retailed as cod-\\\c,r oil. I have seen a shark’s 
liver, and it certainly was of a very healthy colour and 
appearance. 
