276 THE POINT BAKROW ESKIMO. 



While they arc very particular in all superstitious observances re 

 garding the whales, they are less careful about certain things, such as 

 loud talking and firing guns at seals and fowl when they are wait 

 ing for whales, which really hurt their chances with the timid animals. 

 They are less energetic than one would suppose in pursuit of the whale, 

 according to Capt. Herendeen, who spent several days each season with 

 the whaleboats. Instead of cruising about the lead in search of whales 

 they are rather inclined to lie in wait for them at the edge of the floe, 

 so that when the open water is wide many whales escape. 



When the leads are very narrow the whales are sometimes shot with 

 the bombgun from the edge of the ice. Success in this appears to be 

 variable. In 1882 only one small whale was secured, and in 1883 one 

 full-grown one, though several were struck and lost each season. The 

 veteran whaling-master, Oapt. L. 0. Owen, informs me that one season 

 the boats of these two villages captured ten. The season of 188&quot;) was 

 very successful. The natives of the two villages are reported to have 

 taken twenty-eight whales. Oapt. E. E. Smith, however, informs me 

 that only seven of these were full-grown. 



When actually engaged in whaling the umialik exercises a very fair 

 degree of discipline, but at other times he seems hardly able to keep 

 his men from straggling off to go home or to visit their seal nets, etc., 

 so that he sometimes has to chase a whale &quot;short-handed.&quot; 



Nowhere else among the Eskimo does the whale fishery appear to be 

 conducted in such regular manner with formally organized crews as 

 upon this northwest coast. From all accounts the animal is only cas- 

 nally pursued elsewhere with fleets of kaiaks or umiaks manned by 

 volunteer crews. 1 



The beluga or white whale is only casually pursued, and as far as 1 

 could learn is always shot with the rifle. It is not abundant. 



Fowl. During the winter mouths a few ptarmigan are occasionally 

 shot, but the natives pay no special attention to birds until the spring 

 migrations. The first ducks appear a little later than the whales, about 

 the end of April or the first week of May, and from that time till the 

 middle of June scarcely a day passes when they are not more or less 

 plenty. The king ducks (Somateria spectabilis) are the flrst to appear, 

 while the Pacific eiders (S. v-igra) arrive somewhat later, and are 

 more abundant towards the end of the migrations. At this season all 

 women and children, and many men, go armed with the bolas, and 

 everybody is always on the lookout for flocks of ducks. On four or five 

 favorable days each season, at intervals of a week or ten days, there 

 are great flights of eiders coming up in huge flocks of two or three hun 

 dred, stretched out in long diagonal Hues. These flocks follow one 

 another in rapid succession and keep the line of the, coast, apparently 

 striking straight across PeardBay from the Seahorse Islands to a point 



See EgtHle, Orcenland, p. 102; Oautz, History of Greenland, Vol. I, p. 121; Parry, 2(^ Voy., p. 509 



4 1 ul nlii, i ; McClnre. Northwest Passage, p. 92 (Capo Bathurst). 



