Abbeville progress. (Abbeville, Vermilion Parish, La.) 1913-1944, 1914-01-03

From the lower jaw of the porpolse
IL extracted an oil which IS peculiarly .
fitted to serve as lubricant loI
watches. clocks and chronometers' /
and strange to say, from no olheI .
source can an oil of the requisite
qualities be obtained. Therefore the
porpoise is hunted as systemaucaliS
as the whale used to be.
A few years ago nearly quarter
of a million clocks just out oil lheii
makers hands went wrong. II was
not merely that they lost time ou.
they actually came to a full stop anu
would not work at all. There was no
question about their skilful fabrication
and assembling. The whole troupe
was due to an imperfect lubricant anu
a goodly sum of money and much
time we're spent before these cloch9
were in running order and mt tor ais
tribution. From this may be appre-
ciated the value of the contribution
which the porpoise makes to the dalIS
life of mankind.
For years the porpoise was taken
principally as a side issue IN olheI
fishing. The increase in the demand
for the oil led to the creation or
business having for it's sole end the
capture of porpOises in large NUMBERS
and under circumstances that could Dc
controlled to meet commercial de-
mands.
Harpooning had previously Deen
the method of taking them, Dut lhi'
had many drawbacks. An oil rehhei
in New Bedford learned that the
Turks on the Black Sea used dragne's
tn land the native porpoise whel
swimming near shore in quest or Ger
tain small fish upon which they feeu
This was a practice unknown mere any
conditions were not Identical, Dut ina
clever Yankee believed that the facli
tiles could be adapted to suit the re
ouirements. From New Jersey U
Florida are now scattered fishing sts
tions organized by that refiner OF Tn
old whaling city, and from Novemoe
to April they are busy SEEMING po
poises as they pass up and down III
Atlantic shoreline. Porpolses can Q
caught at other seasons, but in wlnte
they are latest and furnish the De'
and most profitable yield.
To the uninitiated the fat OF u
body and the fat of the lower ia
anpear much of a kind but the oil
produced from them are radically al
ferent in their characteristics. III
oil from the body fat is worth in II
raw state about 40 cents gallo
while a like quantity of the yield
the Jaw pans and the marrow OF Il
tawbone brings $40. The blubber,
body fat, of a large porpoise furnlsh
from five to six gallons of oil, al
the lower laws of a fish of the san
size give probably about two quar-
ON an average, and this quantity
greatly reduced before the vario
stages OF refining have made the
at for the market. When ready I
sale to watch and clock makers I
oil is worth nearly double its val
In the raw or unrefined condition.
The equipment at each fishing s
ton consists principally of the bot
and the special nets designed
the work. A working unit is CO
posed Of four boats and mile
seine. The seines are heavy a
exceptionally stout, and it is sol
thing of a task to handle them pr
erly. The boats are a cross betwee
skiff and the fishing dory of n
foundland and our own down Z
coast.
1t is not possible to put out al
the porpoises from sheltered poir
the boats have to be launched ri
into the surf and carried safely
yond the danger line of the tumbl