WHALING 265 



cass may be stripped with safety. When this is impossible, the 

 body is brought alongside the ship and secured by the head and 

 tail. Work is then commenced with long-handled blubber 

 spades, about six inches wide and very sharp. The blubber is 

 removed in long strips cut around the body, and when one side 

 is finished the whale is turned over. The great lips are cut 

 away, and then, with cheers, the prize in the upper jaw is 

 hoisted on board. The blubber, as it is taken from the whale, is 

 stored in the empty tanks and is taken home in this condition. 

 It is not reduced to oil immediately, as is the practice with the 

 Americans. 



The Scotch whalers of Hudson bay differ in their methods 

 from those of Baffin bay only in the employment of Eskimos to 

 man a part of their boats, and consequently they do not carry so 

 large a white crew. The natives employed by the Active belong 

 to the north side of Hudson strait and come from the vicinity 

 of Big island. Several families of these Eskimos are taken on 

 board the ship when she arrives in the early summer, and re- 

 main on board until she leaves for home in October. These 

 natives are employed partly in whaling and walrus hunting, 

 and are very useful in skinning and preparing the hides of the 

 walrus. 



At present there is only one American vessel engaged in 

 whaling on the eastern side of America, the topsail schooner 

 Era of ISTew Bedford. This ship entered Hudson bay during 

 the summer of 1903, wintered in the harbour of Fullerton, and 

 intended to pass the winter of 1904 in the same harbour, 

 returning home in the following September. As the Neptune 

 wintered alongside at Fullerton, and as the writer made a trip 

 lasting two weeks to Southampton island, in June, 1904, in 

 company with four of the whaleboats belonging to the Era, he 

 is personally better acquainted with the life and methods of the 

 American than with those of the Scotch whalers. 



