The whale is now cut in; then comes the process of “trying out.” In the centre of the deck, somewhat forward, are the try-works for the purpose of trying out the oil. It is a square place, built up with bricks and iron, about four feet high and ten square. It has two large iron pots in the centre, each one containing between three and four barrels, with furnaces underneath. The liquid spermaceti from the case is first put into the pots, the fires are lighted, and the process of “trying out” commences. Here we would state that, in a whaling voyage, the first fire in a try-works has to be fed for a time with wood. After that no wood is used, except as the means of quick ignition to the staple fuel. In a word, after being tried out, the crisp, shriveled blubber, now called scraps, still contains considerable of its unctuous properties. These scraps feed the flames. Like a plethoric burning martyr, or a self-consuming misanthrope, once ignited, the whale supplies his own fuel and burns by his own body. Would that he consumed his own smoke! for his smoke is horrible to inhale, and inhale it you must; and not only that, but you must live in it for the time. It has an indescribable odor about it, such as one might imagine would arise from a Hindoo funeral pile. The blanket-pieces are cut into small pieces, varying from twelve to twenty inches in length, and about as wide as the thickness of the blubber, called “horse pieces.” They are then pitched on deck, and forward to the mincing machine, where they are cut into very thin slices, and are then ready for the pots. [Illustration: TRYING OUT.] As soon as the oil is extracted from the blubber, the scraps are skimmed off, and the oil bailed out of the pots into a large copper cooler, which stands by the side of the try-works. When it is sufficiently cool that it will not burn the casks, it is poured into them, and allowed to remain on deck for two or three days. It is then “coopered,” that is, the hoops on the casks are all driven tight, to prevent them from leaking, it having been rendered necessary by the hot oil shrinking the casks. At length, when the last pint is casked and coopered, and all is sufficiently cool, then the great hatchways are unsealed, the bowels of the ship are thrown open, and down go the casks to their rest in the hold. This done, the hatches are replaced and hermetically sealed, like a closet walled up.