190 FOUR YEARS IN THE WHITE NORTH [Sept. 



a harpoon, and that wide-open mouth as its objective, 

 noiselessly we crept toward our quarry, the children 

 whimpering with fright, and the women giggling hys- 

 terically. A clean miss! The look on the face of the 

 astonished animal as he opened his eyes almost into ours 

 was truly comical. He tore an immense hole in the 

 water trying to get under it. 



Herds of white whale with their dark-gray young 

 passed and repassed our boat throughout the trip. It 

 was interesting that they had not disappeared at this 

 time of the year immediately after the departure of 

 the little auks, as they are said to do by the Smith 

 Sound Eskimos. It is the firm belief among these peo- 

 ple that the white whales feed upon these little auks 

 which they follow south in the fall. They are from 

 fifteen to twenty feet long and of a creamy, yellowish 

 white in color, and furnish about 9,400 pounds of blub- 

 ber. "Singing canaries" they are called by the sailor 

 of the North, because of a peculiar whistling note some- 

 times compared to the Tyrolian yodel, sometimes to a 

 jew's-harp, and the music is often heard even in the 

 cabin of a ship. The Smith Sound Eskimo can easily 

 detect the difference between the whistle of the white 

 whale and the whistle of the narwhal, wliich is a much 

 lower tone. The white whales are extremely acute in 

 hearing and can only be approached with the utmost 

 caution. 



When we saw a herd approaching directly in our 

 path, we tested on the oars and remained perfectly 

 motionless and noiseless. In spite of this precaution, 

 they disappeared fifty yards in advance of our boat and 

 reappeared a himdred yards in the rear. The raw skin 

 of the white whale is considered a great delicacy in the 



