WHALING 275 
Little Whale river, notably so in that of the Nastapoka. 
The Eskimos depend upon the White whale for part of their 
food and lamp oil. The meat is coarse and dark, being, like 
that of the seals, highly charged with blood and having a fishy 
flavour. The boiled skin is a native dainty, and is in the same 
class as beaver-tail or moose nose, soft and gelatinous. There is 
little doubt that, with the opening of Hudson bay, the White 
whale fishery will become an important industry in many places 
in the bay and strait, and also along the coast to the northward. 
monodon monoceras, linn.-the Narwhal has habits very 
similar to those of the White whale. It generally travels in 
bands, and appears to prefer the proximity of ice, so that its 
summer range is more northern than that of the White whale. 
The baffin bay Whalers obtain a considerable number of nar- 
whal horns from the natives of north Greenland, the best place 
being in the vicinity of Cape York, or to the eastward of Mel- 
ville bay. 
The narwhal appears to replace the White whale in the waters 
of Ponds inlet, only the former being killed there. Numbers are 
taken in the ice by the Whalers of Baffin bay; they are not un- 
common about Cumberland gulf when the ice still covers its 
waters. The natives of Hudson strait kill numbers of these 
animals in the early summer, and after the shore-ice has formed 
in the early winter, but none are seen on the south shore during 
the open waters of summer. The narwhal is only found in the 
northern waters of Hudson bay, where it is abundant in the 
ice-laden waters of Fox channel and Frozen strait. 
The narwhal is distinguished in the water from the White 
whale by its darker colour, its white spots and its horn. The 
colour becomes lighter with age, so that very old individuals 
become dirty white. According to the Eskimos, the horn is 
confined to the males, and its chief use is for domestic battle. 
Only one horn is usually developed, growing out of the upper 
