On the way, it appeared to strike the boys (who had made not the slightest objection to the singularly unpleasant task I had set them), as very strange that I should wish to possess what they had been working so hard to procure for me.
"What can have made you wish to bring away that brute's entrails, father? Are they of any use?"
"There are countries," I replied, "where no wood grows of which to make barrels, and no hemp for thread, string, and cordage. Necessity, the mother of all the more valuable inventions, has taught the inhabitants of these countries, Greenlanders, Esquimaux, and others, to think of substitutes, and they use the intestines of the whale for one purpose, the sinews and nerves for the other."
We were right glad to land, and get rid, for the present, of our unpleasant materials, the further preparation of which was work in store for the following day.
A refreshing bath, clean clothes, and supper, cheered us all up, and we slept in peace.
CHAPTER XI.
The blubber of the whale boiled and stored—A unique machine—Expedition to Prospect Hill—Whale's tongue is voted no delicacy—We land on Whale Island—Jack discovers a strange skeleton—Turtle turning—Towed ashore—The loom completed—Return of the herring shoals—Basket making—We manufacture a sedan chair—Ernest's wild ride therein—A boa constrictor appears—He retreats to the marsh—Suspense—Poor Grizzle's fate—An awful scene—Death of the monster—An account of snakes—Remedies for poisoned bites—Ernest writes Grizzle's epitaph—The serpent stuffed and placed in the museum.
"Now for the finishing up of this dirty job," cried I, merrily, as we all woke up next morning at daybreak. And after the regular work was done, we commenced operations by raising a stand or rough scaffold on which the tubs full of blubber were placed and heavily pressed, so that the purest and finest oil overflowed into vessels underneath.
The blubber was afterward boiled in a cauldron over a fire kindled at some distance from our abode, and by skimming and straining through a coarse cloth, we succeeded in obtaining a large supply of excellent train-oil, which in casks, and bags made of the intestines, was safely stowed away in the "cellar," as the children called our roughest storeroom. This day's work was far from agreeable, and the dreadful smell oppressed us all, more especially my poor wife, who, nevertheless, endured it with her accustomed good temper. Although she very urgently recommended that the new island should be the headquarters for another colony, where, said she, "any animals we leave would be safe from apes and other plunderers, and where you would find it so very convenient to boil whale-blubber, strain train-oil, and the like."
This proposal met with hearty approval, especially from the boys, who were always charmed with any new plan; and they were eager to act upon it at once, but when I reminded them of the putrifying carcass which lay there, they confessed it would be better to allow wind and storms, birds and insects to do their work in purging the atmosphere, and reducing the whale to a skeleton before we revisited the island.