Oct., 1889. the fin whale fishery in north lapland. 
238 
the “flurry,” “screaming” loudly if it is a Humpback, 
and then it is all over. The next thing is to prepare the 
whale for being towed ashore to the factory, and for this the 
flukes are cut off, as they would impede progress. A chain or 
rope is then fixed just in front of the tail, and the whale is 
then towed tail first. At first the carcase shows but little 
above the water, but very soon it begins to swell up with 
gas, and floats higher and higher out of the water, till after 
the lapse of a few hours it is quite balloon-like and by no 
means “ very like a whale.” It may even burst with the 
pressure, and, if pierced in this condition, a loud report is 
often caused by the liberation of the confined gas. 
The whale is thus towed to the company’s factory, and it 
may be well here to give a brief description of this establish¬ 
ment. There is a large main building divided into two 
floors ; the ground floor is given up to the huge boilers and 
tanks, where the oil is extracted by boiling and steaming 
from the blubber, &c. Into the upper storey is received the 
blubber as it is cut off, and leading up to this floor is a long 
slide, up which the pieces of blubber are drawn by means of 
a chain and windlass. In front of the factory is built a small 
pier, jutting out some little way into the sea at high tide ; at 
the end of this is a crane, and on it are windlasses for hauling 
up the heavy bones, &c. The whale is hauled as high as 
possible up the shelving beach at high tide, usually head 
first ; and, as soon as the carcase is sufficiently exposed by the 
falling tide, the operation of cutting up, or “ flensing,” 
commences. The men are armed with large knives, fitted 
with wooden handles about four feet long. A longitudinal 
incision is made at some part of the body, extending perhaps 
twenty feet, and another is made parallel to the first some two 
or three feet away from it; by means of transverse cuts a 
long piece of blubber is marked off, and a chain is then 
brought from a windlass at the base of the wooden slide 
leading to the upper storey. This chain is fixed to that end 
of the piece of blubber marked off, which is farthest from the 
the factory, and a certain amount of strain is applied by 
means of the windlass. The “ flenser ” then cuts away the 
connective tissue underlying the blubber, and the huge 
“ blanket ” piece is thus partly pulled and partly cut away, 
and hauled up to the base of the slide. Here the chain from 
the upper storey is fixed on, and the piece is dragged up the 
slide into the upper room, where it is divided up into smaller 
pieces for boiling down. The rest of the blubber is similarly 
removed, and the tongue is cut out and sent up the slide. 
The carcase is turned over at high tide, and the other side is 
