Fritz and Jack stripped, and went to work directly, scrambling over the back to the head, where they assisted me to cut away the lips, so as to reach the whale bone, a large quantity of which was detached and carried to the boat.
Ernest laboured manfully at the creature's side, cutting out slabs of blubber, while his mother and Franz helped as well as they could to put it in casks.
Presently we had a multitude of unbidden guests. The air was filled by the shrill screams and hoarse croaks and cries of numbers of birds of prey; they flew around us in ever narrowing circles, and becoming bolder as their voracity was excited by the near view of the tempting prey, they alighted close to us, snatching morsels greedily from under the very strokes of our knives and hatchets.
Our work was seriously interrupted by these feathered marauders, who, after all, were no greater robbers than we ourselves. We kept them off as well as we could by blows from our tools, and several were killed, my wife taking possession of them immediately for the sake of the feathers.
It was nearly time to leave the island, but first I stripped off a long piece of the skin, to be used for traces, harness, and other leather-work. It was about three-quarters of an inch thick, and very soft and oily—but I knew it would shrink and be tough and durable.
I also took a part of the gums in which the roots of the baleen or whalebone was still embedded, having read that this is considered quite a delicacy, as well as the skin, which, when properly dressed and cut in little cubes, like black dice, has been compared, by enthusiastic (and probably very hungry) travellers, to cocoanut and cream-cheese.
The boys thought the tongue might prove equally palatable, but I valued it only on account of the large quantity of oil it contained.
With a heavy freight we put to sea, and made what haste we could to reach home and cleanse our persons from the unpleasant traces of the disgusting work in which we had spent the day.
Next morning we started at dawn. My wife and Franz were left behind, for our proposed work was even more horrible than that of the preceding day; they could not assist, and had no inclination to witness it.
It was my intention to open the carcase completely, and, penetrating the interior, to obtain various portions of the intestines, thinking that it would be possible to convert the larger ones into vessels fit for holding the oil.