File:Modern travel, a record of exploration, travel (1921) (14776628691).jpg

Identifier: moderntravelreco00davi (find matches)
Title: Modern travel, a record of exploration, travel
Year: 1921 (1920s)
Authors: Davidson, Norman James. (from old catalog)
Subjects: Voyages and travels
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott company London, Seeley, Service & co., ltd.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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dead in front; higher and higher hisback rose, then Bang!—and he was fast and the linerattling out. A great surge followed as the whale went down, andout went the five-inch rope—for but a short distance,though it was a heavy rope, spun for far more powerfulprey than the sperm or cachalot, and he was soonreeled in, and a long lance ended the valuable animalstroubles. There was no ambergris in this one. It disgorgedseveral cuttle-fish but they were not lost, for the sharkssoon came round, and nothing comes amiss to them. Ambergris is found sometimes in a sperms intestine,sometimes thrown from the whale into sea. It is usedas the basis of scents. Its selling price is about onehundred shillings per ounce. A whaler a short time agosecured some from one whale, and sold it for £20,000. All afternoon until late at night was occupied incutting up the whale. First of all a cut was maderound its shoulder and fin, or hand—for a whale hasbones like those of a hand inside the fibrous fin. In
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HUNTING MIGHTY GAME 38 fact, the whales anatomy is similar to that of a landanimal, not like that of fish. The hip bone and thighare only floating rudimentary bones. A round hole was cut through the blubber, round thefin or arm, and a strop or loop of rope passed throughfrom the under side of the blubber and pulled taut onto a sort of button of oak called a toggle on the outsidesurface of skin. Then, with the winchs hook and chainhooked on to the strop, by steam power was graduallyraised a strip of blubber about two feet in width and ofabout eight inches in depth off the whale, as the bodyslowly revolved in the water, cutting it clear of theflesh with the flensing blades from the dory or flat-bottomed boat. The head and tail parts were treated separately.Finner whales on a landing-stage on shore are strippedor flensed from end to end with an instrument like asabre on a long shaft, but if one has to be stripped orflensed at sea, it has to be treated in the same way asthis sperm whale.

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