barky began to roll and tumble about in an aimless, drunken sort
of way, the result of a new cross swell rolling up from the
south-westward. As the stuff was gained, it was poured into
large tanks in the blubber-room, the quantity being too great to
be held by the try-pots at once. Twenty-five barrels of this
clear, wax-like substance were baled from that case; and when at
last it was lowered a little, and cut away from its supports, it
was impossible to help thinking that much was still remaining
within which we, with such rude means, were unable to save. Then
came the task of cutting up the junk. Layer after layer, eight
to ten inches thick, was sliced off, cut into suitable pieces,
and passed into the tanks. So full was the matter of spermaceti
that one could take a piece as large as one's head in the hands,
and squeeze it like a sponge, expressing the spermaceti in
showers, until nothing remained but a tiny ball of fibre. All
this soft, pulpy mass was held together by walls of exceedingly
tough, gristly integrument ("white horse"), which was as
difficult to cut as gutta-percha, and, but for the peculiar
texture, not at all unlike it.

When we had finished separating the junk, there was nearly a foot
of oil on deck in the waist, and uproarious was the laughter when
some hapless individual, losing his balance, slid across the deck
and sat down with a loud splash in the deepest part of the
accumulation.

The lower jaw of this whale measured exactly nineteen feet in
length from the opening of the mouth, or, say the last of the
teeth, to the point, and carried twenty-eight teeth on each side.
For the time, it was hauled aft out of the way, and secured to