WHALING 265 
cass may be stripped with safety. When this is impossible, the 
body is brought alongside the ship and secured by the head and 
tail. Work is then commenced with long-handled blubber 
spades, about six inches wide and very sharp. The blubber is 
removed in long strips cut around the body, and when one side 
is finished the whale is turned over. The great lips are cut 
away, and then, with cheers, the prize in the upper jaw is 
hoisted on board. The blubber, as it is taken from the whale, is 
stored in the empty tanks and is taken home in this condition. 
It is not reduced to oil immediately, as is the practice with the 
Americans. 
The Scotch Whalers of Hudson bay differ in their methods 
from those of baffin bay only in the employment of Eskimos to 
man a part of their boats, and consequently they do not carry so 
large a white crew. The natives employed by the Active belong 
to the north side of Hudson strait and come from the vicinity 
of Big island. Several families of these Eskimos are taken on 
board the ship when she arrives in the early summer, and re- 
main on board until she leaves for home in October. These 
natives are employed partly in whaling and walrus hunting, 
and are very useful in skinning and preparing the hides of the 
walrus. 
At present there is only one American vessel engaged in 
whaling on the eastern side of America, the topsail schooner 
Era of new Bedford. This ship entered Hudson bay during 
the summer of 1903, wintered in the harbour of Fullerton, and 
intended to pass the winter of 1904 in the same harbour, 
returning home in the following September. As the Neptune 
wintered alongside at Fullerton, and as the writer made a trip 
lasting two weeks to Southampton island, in June, 1904, in 
company with four of the whaleboats belonging to the Era, he 
is personally better acquainted with the life and methods of the 
American than with those of the Scotch Whalers. 
