224 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



The Ceniral Panel — Narivhal Hunting in Summer. 



The dramatic center of this panel is an Innuit in his kayak or sealskin 

 canoe in the act of harpooning a narwhal, which is visible beneath the 

 surface of the water at the left of the boat. To the right in the middle 

 distance are fnlmar gulls. In the distance is the great ice river, the 

 Verhoeff glacier. 



The narwhal is an animal about which little is definitely known. 

 Some, notably Peary, think that it is the fabled unicorn of the ancients. 

 It occasionally has both a long and a short horn, one of which it may 

 lose, however. The narw^hal is blue-black along the back and spotted 

 with dark along the sides, the color fading into ivory white underneath. 

 The thin skin covers a very deep layer of fat or blubber, considered a 

 delicacy by the Innuit. This blubber is eaten raw, as in fact is most 

 of the food in the Arctics, and of course without pepper or salt, neither 

 of which is known to the Eskimo. 



In narwhal hunting, the Innuit approaches the animal from the rear 

 and one side, decreasing the distance noiselessly until he is within strik- 

 ing distance. A companion always accompanies the hunter, so that, in 

 the event of his being struck by the narwhal, and his boat overturned, 

 there may be some rescue at hand. The harpoons used in narwhal 

 hunting formerly had heads made of flakes from the iron meteorites 

 near Cape York, but since the first quarter of the nineteenth century 

 the Eskimo have obtained their metal from traders and from whaling 

 and other ships. The harpoon head is joined to a piece of walrus or 

 narwhal ivory, which fits loosely on to the ivory end of the shaft. To 

 the center of this harpoon head, is fastened a line of walrus hide kept 

 in place by the hand that holds the harpoon. The line itself is coiled 

 on the fore part of the kayak, so that it will unwind rapidly and with- 

 out becoming tangled. Attached to the other end of this line and 

 placed in the after part of the kayak are two objects, a sealskin bag 

 and a drag resembline; a box lid. When the animal dives and flees 

 vainly from the pain of the harpoon point imbedded in its flesh, the 

 drag tires it out, and the skin bag, floating on the surface of the water, 

 marks its position and keeps it from sinking. The hunter, who adroitly 

 gets out of the way of the infuriated animal, can thus trace its course 

 and finally tow it home. 



The Verhoeft' glacier represented in the painting is one of two glaciers 



