"Your highness has not called to mind, that the whale is what naturalists call a `hot-blood animal,' with arteries and circulation of blood similar to the human species; and that it brings forth its young alive, and nurses it at the breast." "Very true," observed the pacha. "I had forgot that." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ My conductor resumed as follows: "As I told you before, the whale is the staple of this island. You observe that his skin serves us as a house; from his bones we form all our implements--from his sinews, our thickest ropes down to our finest thread. The dress we wear is composed of the belly-part of the skin, dressed with a sort of soap, composed of the alkali obtained from the sea-weed which abounds in the lake, and the oil of the whale. His blubber serves us for fuel and candle; his flesh for meat, and the milk is invaluable to us. It is true, we have other resources; we have our lizards, and a variety of fish and shell fish; and when we are shut up in the winter among the icebergs, we procure the flesh and skins of the seals and the polar bear. But we have no vegetable of any kind; and although the want of bread may at first he unpleasant, a few weeks will reconcile you to the privation. But it is time to repose after your fatigues--I will report your arrival to the great harpooner, after I have shown you to your chamber." He then conducted me to an inner room, where I found a couch, composed of the skins of the polar bears, on which I threw myself, and in a few minutes was fast asleep. The next morning I was awakened by my host. "If you wish to see the whales milked, this is the hour that they are called in; a short walk will explain more to you than many hours' conversation." I arose perfectly refreshed from my long nap, and followed my conductor. We passed a large tank. "This is our water; we are obliged not to waste it, although we have a sufficiency; the tank is coated by a cement, formed of lime, obtained by the burning of the shells of fish. We make all our vessels, that are submitted to the fire, of the same substance, mixed with pounded lava; it is burnt in the fire, and glazed with sea-salt." We arrived at the edge of the lake, where we came to a large shallow dock, cut out of the lava in the side, in which were about two dozen young whales, who followed my host as he walked round the edge. "These are my calves; we do not admit the mothers until we have first drawn off what milk we require."