HUNTING THE NARWHAL 367 



ing narwhals was sighted. As Kulutinguah was 

 starting after them in his kayak I warned him to 

 harpoon only males, as I desired horns for trophies. 

 They were so close at hand that we could watch his 

 movements without difficulty. Three different nar- 

 whals were seen to rise very near him, but he made 

 no movement to throw his harpoon. It was evident 

 they were females. All of the Eskimos in the boat 

 at once became very angry with me. They said a 

 great deal about my prohibiting the killing of females, 

 and that because of it they were to lose game which 

 they needed to supply them with food, light and heat 

 during the long winter night that would so soon 

 come. I explained that my prohibition included 

 only this hunt, and after we had secured a good horn 

 as a trophy they would be free to do as they pleased. 

 I realized that unless some restriction of this kind 

 were made, they would make no especial effort to 

 harpoon males, if females happened to be easier to 

 reach, and as a result I might fail to add a narwhal 

 trophy to my collection. 



We disembarked upon the ice, drew up the boat, 

 and for some time watched Kulutinguah, who had 

 moved farther away. In the course of two hours 

 he paddled back to us to tell me that while he had had 

 good opportunities to harpoon seven narwhals, he 

 had refrained from doing so because none of them 

 had horns, and asked if he might now kill a female. 

 There were a large number of narwhals about; I 

 could see them blowing everywhere. Very certain, 

 therefore, that with a little further effort a male 



