was the reply; "for fine lubricating work there's nothing
as good. It's queer, though, how things have changed around. Fifty years
ago, New Bedford was the greatest whaling port in the world, ten years
ago there wasn't a ship there, they had all gone to San Francisco. Now
'Frisco is deserted by whalers, and the few in the business have gone
back to the old port."

In the meantime, while Colin had been telling the story of the adventure
with the gray whale, and the captain had been bemoaning the decay of the
whaling industry, the work of bringing the dead whale to the surface had
been under way. Letting out more slack on the rope attached to the
harpoon a bight of it was passed through a sheave-block at the masthead,
thus giving a greater purchase for the lifting of the heavy body. The
winch was run by a small donkey-engine, and for about ten minutes the
line was hauled in, fathom after fathom being coiled on the deck.
Presently, as Colin looked over the rail, the dark body of the whale
was seen coming to the surface, and as he was hauled alongside a chain
was thrown around his flukes, and the body was made fast to the vessel,
tail foremost.

Just as soon as the whale was secured a sailor jumped on the body,
carrying with him a long steel tube, pierced with a number of holes for
several inches from the bottom. To this he attached a long rubber tube,
while the other end was connected with a small air-pump. The ever-handy
donkey-engine was used to work the pump, and the body of the whale was
slowly filled with air in the same way that a bicycle tire is inflated.

"What's that for?" asked Colin, who had been watching the process with
much curiosity.

"So that he will float," the captain answered. "You can't tow a whale
that's lying on the bottom!"

"But I thought you were going to cut him up!"

"And boil down the blubber on board?"

"Yes."

"That's very seldom done now," the captain explained. "In the old days,
when whaling-ships went on three and four year voyages they 'fleshed'
the blubber at sea and boiled it down or 'tried it out,' as they called
it, into oil. They always carried a cooper along, too, and made their
own barrels, so that after a long voyage a ship would come back with her
hold full of barrels of whale-oil."

"What's the method now, Captain Murchison?" asked Colin.

"Nearly all whaling is done by steamers and not very far from the coast,
say within a day's steaming. We catch the whales, blow t