Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1893-12-17

castle is called. All hosting is done by
the windlaSs, and in most Of the YES
sells power comes from a donkey en-
CINE. The blanket piece is started
again and the whale rolled half over.
The throat is then uppermost. This in
turn is cut of and deposited In the
blubber- room: then the other lips roll
up aud are removed. BY this time the
blanket piece becomes unwieldy in its
length, so another hold is secured close
down to the carcass (by hooking on an
other tackled and the strip Of blubber,
perhaps Is feet long and 6 feet wide,
cut of and dropped into the blubber-
room.
The most difficult part OF the whole
operation is now at hand, and that is TO
cut of the head or upper jaw which
contains Sll the whalebone. A false or
careless move might destroy
hundreds of dollars worth OF
bone, or possibly cause the loss OF
the whole head. A chain is carefully
drawn through a hole cut between the
scalp bone and the tough blubber about
the spout hole. The backbone is
chopped nearly through near where the
blanket piece was started, then, by a
jerk OF the tackle, the weight breaks
the remainder and the head is hauled
on board. Heads contain over six
hundred slabs Of bone, and in a large
whale the pieces range 10 length from
twelve feet or a little over down TO a
few inches. For convenience In work
ing, each ship has q cutting stage or
plsnks that hang over the water Ia
front Of the gaugway, so that the men
can stand nearly over the whale.
With the head cut of the rest OF the
cutting Is easy and simple. The blanket
piece is peeled of in strips about fifteen
feet long until q point neal the
"aukes" is reached. There the back
bone is disjointed. The final haul
brings on deck the fukes with the
blanket piece. The CARCASS either floats
off or sinks.
II the cutting up process is a dis
agreeable one what should be said OF
the trying out" that is, separating
the oil from the blubber. This is done
while the ship is waiting for the Rp-
pearance of more whales. Imagine q
small vessel of 800 tons with several
tons of decaying blubber in her hold;
imagine the try-pots stesming and
smoking and exhaling their foul doors;
imagine the greasy, slippery decks, the
nasty sense of oil covering everything,
the smudge, the foul appearance Of the
men-none too careful IN their persons
or clothing-the 10, 900 stinks rivaling
the seventy odors OF Cologne, aud one
eau form some conception Of what it Is
TO be 4 whaler.
No class OF men are exposed to
greater or more diversified peril than
are the Arctic w~hslemen. Compare
lively recent years have witnessed
most appalling disasters TO the Arctic
feet. Many vessels have been nipped;
some have been deserted by their crews
that succeeded in reaching safety on
other ships, but in far too many In
stances the men had no escape and
finally succumbsd to starvation or the
rigor Of an Arctic winter. S~hipWrecks,
''stove boats" etc, with all their at
tendant horrors. are commonplace
events in the whsleman's life, and
pages might be filed with the most
startling recitals Of disaster and
suffering.
Happily for those who are in search
Of whales, Il is not NECESSARY always to
60 to the Attic Ocean and encounter its