{"id":"01KG8AP8DHCDW71XCM4D8PMQQV","cid":"bafkreie6itc444lc7z2rufmljt44dxjfhn4rudtptc5ekljbonmofedcz4","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":16282,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:30.771Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6","start_line":16219,"text":"First comes white-horse, so called, which is obtained from the tapering\r\npart of the fish, and also from the thicker portions of his flukes. It\r\nis tough with congealed tendons—a wad of muscle—but still contains some\r\noil. After being severed from the whale, the white-horse is first cut\r\ninto portable oblongs ere going to the mincer. They look much like\r\nblocks of Berkshire marble.\r\n\r\nPlum-pudding is the term bestowed upon certain fragmentary parts of the\r\nwhale’s flesh, here and there adhering to the blanket of blubber, and\r\noften participating to a considerable degree in its unctuousness. It is\r\na most refreshing, convivial, beautiful object to behold. As its name\r\nimports, it is of an exceedingly rich, mottled tint, with a bestreaked\r\nsnowy and golden ground, dotted with spots of the deepest crimson and\r\npurple. It is plums of rubies, in pictures of citron. Spite of reason,\r\nit is hard to keep yourself from eating it. I confess, that once I\r\nstole behind the foremast to try it. It tasted something as I should\r\nconceive a royal cutlet from the thigh of Louis le Gros might have\r\ntasted, supposing him to have been killed the first day after the\r\nvenison season, and that particular venison season contemporary with an\r\nunusually fine vintage of the vineyards of Champagne.\r\n\r\nThere is another substance, and a very singular one, which turns up in\r\nthe course of this business, but which I feel it to be very puzzling\r\nadequately to describe. It is called slobgollion; an appellation\r\noriginal with the whalemen, and even so is the nature of the substance.\r\nIt is an ineffably oozy, stringy affair, most frequently found in the\r\ntubs of sperm, after a prolonged squeezing, and subsequent decanting. I\r\nhold it to be the wondrously thin, ruptured membranes of the case,\r\ncoalescing.\r\n\r\nGurry, so called, is a term properly belonging to right whalemen, but\r\nsometimes incidentally used by the sperm fishermen. It designates the\r\ndark, glutinous substance which is scraped off the back of the\r\nGreenland or right whale, and much of which covers the decks of those\r\ninferior souls who hunt that ignoble Leviathan.\r\n\r\nNippers. Strictly this word is not indigenous to the whale’s\r\nvocabulary. But as applied by whalemen, it becomes so. A whaleman’s\r\nnipper is a short firm strip of tendinous stuff cut from the tapering\r\npart of Leviathan’s tail: it averages an inch in thickness, and for the\r\nrest, is about the size of the iron part of a hoe. Edgewise moved along\r\nthe oily deck, it operates like a leathern squilgee; and by nameless\r\nblandishments, as of magic, allures along with it all impurities.\r\n\r\nBut to learn all about these recondite matters, your best way is at\r\nonce to descend into the blubber-room, and have a long talk with its\r\ninmates. This place has previously been mentioned as the receptacle for\r\nthe blanket-pieces, when stript and hoisted from the whale. When the\r\nproper time arrives for cutting up its contents, this apartment is a\r\nscene of terror to all tyros, especially by night. On one side, lit by\r\na dull lantern, a space has been left clear for the workmen. They\r\ngenerally go in pairs,—a pike-and-gaffman and a spade-man. The\r\nwhaling-pike is similar to a frigate’s boarding-weapon of the same\r\nname. The gaff is something like a boat-hook. With his gaff, the\r\ngaffman hooks on to a sheet of blubber, and strives to hold it from\r\nslipping, as the ship pitches and lurches about. Meanwhile, the\r\nspade-man stands on the sheet itself, perpendicularly chopping it into\r\nthe portable horse-pieces. This spade is sharp as hone can make it; the\r\nspademan’s feet are shoeless; the thing he stands on will sometimes\r\nirresistibly slide away from him, like a sledge. If he cuts off one of\r\nhis own toes, or one of his assistants’, would you be very much\r\nastonished? Toes are scarce among veteran blubber-room men.\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AMA8ZSZE2W4FPM48H6WCY","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AP8DH4YG7EKSSBZ43V725","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:36.689Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:53.707Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}