Augnst, 1865.] TliG Wkalc CacJiecl. 191 



exception of the transverse seam ; the other was the entire skin of a 

 neU-yuk Both were filled with air compressed by the stout lunj^-s of 

 an Innnit. Their double object was to indicate where tlie whale was 

 and to tire it down. When Ou-e-Ms iron struck into the back of the 

 whale, it gave one slap of its flukes and went below the white seeth- 

 ing waters, at first disappointing Hall, who thought it was now lost. 

 He had furnished Ou-e-la on setting out with a full length of line, and 

 was not acquainted with this Innuit use of floats.* But while the 

 boats lay to, watching for a re-appearance, the drugs were seen far out 

 in the bay flying over the waters, though with decreasing speed, and on 

 the whale's again coming up to blow, it received a harpoon from Nii- 

 ker-zhoo at the bow of the Sylvia, and Ou-e-Ws iron drew. The whale 

 again turned flukes for soundings, taking out with him half of the Syl- 

 via's whale-line ; it then immediately struck seawasd, dragging the 

 boat through the water with great speed. On its coming up and blow- 

 ing, Ou-e-la lanced it from the Lady Franklin. It died within one 

 hour from the first attack. 



The anchor was dropped from the Sylvia, the corners of the whale's 

 flukes were cut off, its mouth tied up, and the fins taken one into each 

 boat. The towing of the animal to a floe was made with slow progress 

 against head tide, but at 1 p. m. the prize was taken into a small cove 

 near the tupiJcs. Hall had breakfasted on raw muk-tuJc as soon as the 

 whale was killed. The Innuits, though equally fond of the skin, 

 could not join him, because they had already eaten took-too; in obe- 



* Captain Eoss, in his Narrative (1818), describes tlic native harpooning witnessed by him 

 in the Greenland Seas : " The harpoon has a barb about 3 inches long, and a line attached to it of 

 about 5 fathoms in length, the other end of which is fastened to a buoy of a seal's skin made into a 

 hag and inflated. The blade is fixed on the end of a shaft in such a manner that it may be disen- 

 gaged from the handle after it is fixed in the animal, and the shaft is then pulled back by a line 

 tied to it for the purpose. When the animal is struck, ho carries down with him the seal-skin 

 buoy, which fatigues him. As ho must come up to respire, he is followed up and killed by spears." 



