WHALING 275 



Little Whale river, notably so in that of the ISTastapoka. 

 The Eskimos depend upon the White whale for part of their 

 food and lamp oil. The meat is coarse and dark, being, like 

 that of the seals, highly charged with blood and having a fishy 

 flavour. The boiled skin is a native dainty, and is in the same 

 class as beaver-tail or moose nose, soft and gelatinous. There is 

 little doubt that, with the opening of Hudson bay, the White 

 whale fishery will become an important industry in many places 

 in the bay and strait, and also along the coast to the northward. 



Monodon monoceras, Linn. The Narwhal has habits very 

 similar to those of the White whale. It generally travels in 

 bands, and appears to prefer the proximity of ice, so that its 

 summer range is more northern than that of the WTiite whale. 

 The Baffin bay whalers obtain a considerable number of nar- 

 whal horns from the natives of north Greenland, the best place 

 being in the vicinity of Cape York, or to the eastward of Mel- 

 ville bay. 



The narwhal appears to replace the White whale in the waters 

 of Ponds inlet, only the former being killed there. Numbers are 

 taken in the ice by the whalers of Baffin bay ; they are not un- 

 common about Cumberland gulf when the ice still covers its 

 waters. The natives of Hudson strait kill numbers of these 

 animals in the early summer, and after the shore-ice has formed 

 in the early winter, but none are seen on the south shore during 

 the open waters of summer. The narwhal is only found in the 

 northern waters of Hudson bay, where it is abundant in the 

 ice-laden waters of Fox channel and Frozen strait. 



The narwhal is distinguished in the water from the White 

 whale by its darker colour, its white spots and its horn. The 

 colour becomes lighter with age, so that very old individuals 

 become dirty white. According to the Eskimos, the horn is 

 confined to the males, and its chief use is for domestic battle. 

 Only one horn is usually developed, growing out of the upper 



