ON HERSCHEL AND FLAXMAN ISLANDS 315 



Jarvis, had just come in and was new to the island, as also 

 were two of the constables, but the sergeant, Mr. Fitzgerald, 

 had been there since the station was established and was much 

 liked and highly respected by the natives. 



Major Jarvis and I spent a good deal of time together and 

 went about to look at all the sights of the place. There were many 

 natives, about four hundred, but they were greatly mixed, and 

 Kokmoliks and Nunatomiuts were walking about with natives 

 from Kotzebue Sound. They looked fairly well to do. Many 

 of them had whaleboats, almost all had good tents, and as the 

 season wore on each native had a small store of provisions 

 which he had got in exchange for his fur. Their women were 

 good-looking, even pretty, and all very well dressed. Black 

 velvet seemed to be the craze, and it made a fine effect, setting 

 forth their splendid figures in the most flattering manner, but 

 the price they had to pay for it was high, as much as $5 

 a yard. 



Although most of them lived in tents, many lived in small 

 houses which were, with very few exceptions, the most filthy 

 things I ever saw. There the women lived who got their 

 livelihood from the whalers, some of them with a native man, 

 but mostly alone. The houses had belonged to the whaling 

 fleet, had been built during the years when many ships had 

 wintered there and the officers were living ashore, but the 

 women were now the owners of them and could do as they 

 pleased. 



The quiet which had settled on the population when the last 

 of the whaling vessels had left for the east was only now and 

 then disturbed when a shoal of white whale came into the 

 harbour, which always caused great excitement. The men ran 

 to their boats, and in the twinkling of an eye the sails were set, 

 the moorings gone, and the whaleboats, with their leeward 

 railing almost at the water's edge, followed up the shining 

 white bodies which swam lazily along just under the surface 

 of the water. In the bow of each boat a man stood ready with 

 a harpoon, and in case a whale came up near the boat he would 

 drive the iron into it, while the people on shore were notified of 

 the fact by the lowering of the sail. Sometimes they would 

 have much trouble in killing the whale, and many escaped, 

 but during the time I stayed at Herschel Island three or four 



