Belugas or White Whales 
four eggs. I cut out the whole sod of earth that 
contained the nest, as Battye wanted it for the 
Natural History Museum at Kensington. Un- 
fortunately I put my big foot into the nest 
before we got it back to camp, which did not 
do the eggs any good, for I smashed one and 
cracked another. 
One morning a school of about twenty belugas, 
or white whales, came into the fjord. As they 
were within a few feet of the land, the water 
here being very deep close in-shore, I went for 
my twelve-bore Paradox and a supply of ball 
cartridges. The old whales are almost white in 
colour, and perhaps eighteen or twenty feet in 
length, whilst the young ones are a deep slaty 
tint, and not much smaller than the old ones. 
The water was so clear that it was quite easy 
to see them as they swam beneath the surface, 
coming up to blow at every few yards. I aimed 
at their heads and, as they appeared above the 
surface of the water, fired. In all I had five 
shots, killing four whales, the fifth was mortally 
wounded, but turned away towards the open sea, 
going all along the surface like a giant torpedo, 
where it sank. The four sank at once to the 
shots, killed instantaneously. They were re- 
covered by some Swedes with harpoons, who 
towed them to the shore and flayed them. The 
skin of these whales is used for boot-leather and 
is, 1 understand, admirable for that purpose, 
155 
