292 NATURAL HISTOEY COLLECTIONS IN ALASKA. 



season's work. As a rule the Bowbeads congregate in some particular part of the sea. and it 

 is the object of the whalers to discover this place and then to follow the whales until they get 

 a cargo of oil and whalebone. In one part of the season the whales may congregate near the 

 North Siberian coast or near Wi'angel and Herald Islands, and in autumn they are generally found 

 along the American coast from Point Barrow to Point Hope. 



The belt of open water bordering the American coast from Icy Cape to the mouth of the 

 Colville Eiver is a favorite resort during the last part of summer and until winter sets in. From 

 Icy Cape to Point Barrow the coast is low and sandy and backed by shallow lagoons. The 

 southern part of this strip of coast is known as the "graveyard" among the whalers, from the 

 great number of vessels that have been forced ashore or crushed by the ice here. Some years ago 

 a large part of the fleet was caught here and over five hundred men were cast ashore, but they 

 were all rescued by other vessels later in the season. Thirty-three ships were lost here in a few 

 hours, and the sailors on two .ships that were caught in the ice, but not crushed, luimbering 

 some seventy men, refused to leave and have never been heard of since. 



Just before our ai-rival at Point Barrow in 1881 a vessel had been lost there, and hardly a 

 season passes without the loss of one or more vessels. The fall of IST'.l two vessels were lost in 

 the ice, and a part of our season's work in 1881 was to search for them. 



On the north coast of Siberia we obtained a number of relics from the natives there, and 

 learned that the preceding fall a party of hunters had found a vessel frozen in a great piece of ice 

 drifting along the coast. The masts and all of the upper works had been cut up for fuel, and 

 peering down into the cabin through the skylight the hunters saw a corpse floating about in the 

 water that covered the floor, and in the berths lay three others, mute witnesses of the fearful fate 

 that had overtaken all of the ship's company. From these examples it can be seen that the 

 whaler's lot is one full of danger and privation, even up to the present day. In spite of the great 

 risk men return year after year, until they accumulate a fortune or perish miserably. The ex- 

 citement and perils of their occupation exercise a fascination over manj- of the old captains that 

 keeps them in the business years after they are in good circumstances and old enough to retire. 



Q'he use of the bomb-gun and bomb-lance has rendered the capture of a whale a much simpler 

 matter than it was in the days of the harpoon and handlance. Now a boat is pulled within a 

 certain distance, and a single shot either kills the huge animal instantly or so weakens it that it 

 Ibecomes an easy victim. Ten or twelve years ago some whaling vessels wintered in Plover Bay, 

 on the Siberian coast, and the natives there learned the use of the bomb-guns. They managed 

 ito secure one of the.se guns, and the next winter secured several whales in the following odd 

 manner : 



The tide running into the bay kept an open channel in the middle of the mouth of the bay 

 after the head was frozen over. Planting their gun on the edge of this channel, the natives 

 waited, and when a whale passed slowly by, heading up the bay, they fii'ed into him. The animal, 

 startled by the shock, in every instance swam desperately ahead and perished under the ice farther 

 up the bay. In a few days the gases forming inside the huge body inflated it until it finally 

 became so bouyant that it would break through the thin ice and be discovered by the ])eople 

 ou the lookout. The Eskimo of Bering Straits and thence north to Point Barrow hunt them 

 successfully in their light seal- skin kyaks, and also in the larger umiak. 



The implements used are usually an ivory barb with an iron or flint point, attached to a 

 strong line, which latter has an inflated seal-skin float at the other end. A long haft of wood is 

 used to propel the barb ; and when the first coil of line runs out another is attached to it near the 

 float, with another float attached to it; and in the end the whale may be dragging from six to a 

 dozen floats and several small boats, until he finally becomes exhausted, and one or two boats are 

 able to approach and lance him with flint or iron pointed lances. 



From Icy Cape to Point Barrow the coast is so low that only a short view can be obtained to 

 seaward. Near all of the summer camping places on this coast the Eskimo have taken drift logs, 

 a dozen or more feet long, and, after notching steps in their sides, have erected them for lookout 

 stations. At frequent intervals a man ascends these to look for whales or to sweep the horizon 

 for a sail. 



