56 
VOYAGE TO GREENLAND. 
want. In ancient times, the whale seems never 
to have been taken on our coasts, but when it was 
accidentally thrown ashore by some violent storm or 
tempest: it was then deemed a royal fish, and, ac- 
cording to legendary history, the king and queen 
divided the spoil ; the king asserting his right to 
the head, and her majesty to the tail. 
On opening the whale we had killed, an extremely 
thin epidermis or scarf skin covered the main skin, 
which resembles solid Indian rubber, of a pale blue 
colour, soft and easily cut, and of an inch in thick- 
ness : beneath it, the blubber, which subjects this 
inoffensive creature to such persecution, was five 
inches and a half deep ; in this substance, the oil 
is retained, in the same manner as a sponge retains 
water, and it yields to compression : in a large fish, 
it is eighteen or twenty inches thick. Next to the 
blubber lay a thin stratum of extremely tough and 
stringy white fibres ; under this, the muscular mem- 
brane and krang surround the cavity of the abdomen 
containing the intestines. The quantity of blood 
that flowed from the animal was very great, and 
prevented a close investigation of the intestines. 
The temperature of the blood was 100°: the flesh 
resembled beef, and was far from uninviting to the 
taste ; but in an old fish it is black, and very coarse : 
the liver was like that of other animals, but not so 
firm in texture : the heart was a firm fleshy sub- 
stance, having two ventricles and two auricles, with 
immense cavities for the different blood-vessels ; it 
was flat and broad, and weighed sixty-four pounds : 
