32 MARINE MAMMALS OF THE NORTH-WESTERN COAST. 
established custom with these simple natives, that the man who first effectually 
throws his harpoon, takes command of the whole party : accordingly, as soon as the 
animal becomes much exhausted, his baidarra is paddled near, and with surprising 
quickness he cuts a hole in its side sufficiently large to admit the knife and mast 
to which it is attached ; then follows a course of cutting and piercing till death 
ensues, after which the treasure is towed to the beach in front of their huts, where 
it is divided, each member of the party receiving two "slabs of bone," and a like 
proportion of the blubber and entrails ; the owners of the canoes claiming what 
remains. 
The choice pieces for a dainty repast, with them, are the flukes, lips, and fins. 
The oil is a great article of trade with the interior tribes of " reindeer- men :" it 
is sold in skins of fifteen gallons each, a skin of oil being the price of a reindeer. 
The entrails are made into a kind of souse, by pickling them in a liquid extracted 
from a root that imparts an acrid taste : this preparation is a savory dish, as well 
as a preventive of the scurvy. The lean flesh supplies food for their dogs, the 
whole troop of the village gathering about the carcass, fighting, feasting, and howl- 
ing, as only sledge -dogs can. 
Many of the marked habits of the California Gray are widely different from 
those of any other species of balcena. It makes regular migrations from the hot 
southern latitudes to beyond the Arctic Circle ; and in its passages between the 
extremes of climate it follows the general trend of an irregular coast so near that 
it is exposed to attack from the savage tribes inhabiting the sea -shores, who pass 
much of their time in the canoe, and consider the capture of this singular wanderer 
a feat worthy of the highest distinction. As it approaches the waters of the torrid 
zone, it presents an opportunity to the civilized whalemen — at sea, along the shore, 
and in the lagoons — to practice their different modes of strategy, thus hastening 
the time of its entire annihilation. This species of whale manifests the greatest 
affection for its young, and seeks the sheltered estuaries lying under a tropical sun, 
as if to warm its offspring into activity and promote comfort, until grown to the 
size Nature demands for its first northern visit. When the parent animals are 
attacked, they show a power of resistance and tenacity of life that distinguish them 
from all other Cetaceans. Many an expert whaleman has suffered in his encounters 
with them, and many a one has paid the penalty with his life. Once captured, 
however, this whale yields the coveted reward to its enemies, furnishing sustenance 
for the Esquimaux whaler, from such parts as are of little value to others. The 
oil extracted from its fatty covering is exchanged with remote tribes for their fur- 
clad animals, of which the flesh affords the venders a feast of the choicest food, 
