64 NATURAL HISTORY OF ARCTIC AMERICA. 



wall, and many of the old Eskimo liut foimdations contain the remains 

 of thi.s animal. The Eskimo say they got mad and left; certain it is 

 thej' are found around Annanactook only as stra fillers at the i)resent 

 day. Considerable numbers were observed on i)ieeesof lloating ieenear 

 Cape iNIerey in -hd.\ . About Xu^umeute they are largely hunted by the 

 Eskimo living there. The Eskimo say the tusks of the male always 

 bcMitl outward toward the tii>s, while those of the female bend inward. 



14. Cistophora cristata, (Krxltl).) Xilss. 



The l)la(l(l('r-nose appears to be very rare in the ujjjx'r Cumberland 

 waters. One specimen was procured at Annanactook in antuiim, the 

 only one I saw. The Eskimo had no name for it, and said they had not 

 seen it before. I afterward learned that they are occasionally taken 

 about the Kikkertou Islands in spring and autumn. I found their 

 remains in the old kitehenniiddens at Kingwah. A good many indi- 

 viduals were noticed among the pack-ice in Davis Straits in July. 



CETACEA. 



1. Balsena mysticetus, Lin no. 



"Akl>ik," Cumberland Eskimo. 



Also called " Pumah." I think the word had its origin in this wise. 

 When whalemen tirst began to cruise in these waters, few, if any of 

 them, had a knowledge of the Eskimo language, and, to make the natives 

 undeistand wliat they were after, imitated the spouting of the whale by 

 blowing. This was soon taken up by the Eskimo as the "codlunak" 

 (white man's) word for whale, and soon came into general usage, and 

 thus one of the first words was made that now constitutes a part of the 

 pigeon-English of the whalemen's jargon. 



The Cuml)erland Sound, or II(\garth Sound of Penny (Northumber- 

 land Inlet of ^^'al•ellam in 1841), has been renowned among Scotch and 

 American w halemen tor more than a quarter of a century as a favorite 

 resort of the ligjit whale, and one of the most ]>rotital)]e whaling sta- 

 tions on the globe, Put this locality, like all others, has been so thor- 

 oughly hunte«l nearly every season for a nund)er of years that it no 

 longer sustains its pristine renown as a luofitable whaling ground. 



So many shij)s were sometimes found here at one time tliat tliere arose 

 a great spirit of strife among the crews as to which vessel would i)rociire 

 the most whales, and as a conse«iuenc(^ whales were* struck M'hen there 

 was but the slightest chance of seeming tiiem, and the line ha<l to be 

 cut to set tiieiu free. Such whales in all probability die, but not l)efore 



