CUMBERLAND SOUND AND ITS ESKIMOS. 769 



the Norwegians, enticed by the lucrative pursuit, eagerly pressed for- 

 ward into the dangerous frozen sea. Enterprising sailors were con- 

 stantly opening new hunting-grounds to the fishers, some of which are 

 still frequented by whale-hunters. Besides the East Greenland Sea, 

 Baffin's Bay and Davis Strait were among the best-known hunting- 

 grounds, and were visited every year by fleets of Scottish and Ameri- 

 can whalers. In May, the ships leave their home ports and sail in the 

 toilsome and dangerous route along the west coast of Greenland, 

 toward the north, to reach the fishing-ground in the east and south- 

 east of Lancaster Sound. The whales resort to this region in the lat- 

 ter half of July, while later, after the broad girdle of coast-ice on the 

 west side of Davis Strait has broken up, they go farther south. 



When the whales had become more rare here, in the foTirth decade 

 of the century, the brave William Penny, who afterward distinguished 

 himself in the expeditions in search of Franklin, determined to seek for 

 new and richer fields, and penetrated into the half -forgotten Cumber- 

 land Sound, whose waters were numerously populated by whales. As 

 he was accustomed to have frequent dealings with the natives, friendly 

 relations were soon established between the inhabitants of the sound 

 and the whalers ; and, although Penny desired to enjoy his new dis- 

 covery all to himself, he was shortly followed by an enterprising 

 American captain, and the rich fishing-ground he had found was no 

 longer the secret of one man. As early as May and June, when the 

 ice breaks up in the sound, many whales appear at the floe-edge, and 

 were pursued by the natives in their skin-boats. But, as the entrance 

 to the sound was closed at this season by the heavy and broad pack- 

 ice, it was not supposed that any advantage could be taken of this 

 fact till a shrewd captain thought of wintering over two boats' crews, 

 so that they could begin the chase early in the spring. These crews 

 were not very strong in numbers, and they added to their force by 

 enlisting Eskimos, who gave their services readily for a little pay. 

 The experiment proved profitable, and was followed by several ships, 

 till Cumberland Sound became lively in both summer and winter. 

 Other factors preferred to send out their ships only once a year, leav- 

 ing their men to live in houses which were prepared at home and set 

 up on the fishing-grounds. The whales were pursued without mercy, 

 and have accordingly diminished so rapidly that the region, which 

 had for a short time witnessed the most lively activity, has been 

 deserted by nearly all the ships. Only a few scattering graves now 

 remind us of the time when the stir of enterprise prevailed here. 



Two stations are, however, still kept up. They continue to follow 

 the custom, established in the beginning, of employing Eskimos and 

 manning the whale-boats with them. It appears that the sound, at 

 the time it was first visited by the whalers, was inhabited by about 

 two thousand Eskimos, but they have diminished since then with 

 really frightful rapidity, till now they hardly number three hundred 

 VOL. XXVI. — 49 



