510 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



25 years. One ship and one gasoline schooner, the only vessels 

 which whaled in Beaufort Sea, killed twelve whales apiece 

 during the summer of 1912, but the voyages were considered 

 unprofitable on account of the unsaleability of whalebone" 

 (R. M. Anderson, 1937). As Dr. Anderson in the excellent 

 summary just quoted has pointed out, the short era of whaling 

 was a great moment to the local Eskimos through developing 

 their interest in trapping and offering them a market for fur. 

 He concludes his account by calling attention to the encourag- 

 ing fact that "the suspension of whaling operations for many 

 years seems to be bringing the number of Bowheads up again 

 to some extent and their future is assured until such time as the 

 increase in numbers is sufficient to arouse commercial interest 

 again. Fortunately for them, highly organized methods of 

 pursuit are restricted by the difficult ice conditions and any 

 great reduction in numbers of whales automatically renders 

 whaling operations unprofitable. The most valuable use of 

 this species of whale seems to be as a subsidiary food and fuel 

 supply for the Eskimo people. " 



How far Eskimo may become dependent upon this species 

 of whale for food and fuel is an interesting speculation. For 

 example, R. W. Gray (1935, pp. 75-77) in calling attention to 

 various earlier records (1696, 1812, 1813, 1866) of Eskimo 

 harpoons of East Greenland type found in whales killed in 

 Spitsbergen seas, suggests that the Eskimo of that region may 

 have died out because they depended too largely on Greenland 

 whales for their flesh, oil, and whalebone. 



As to the present status of the bowhead, it has been believed 

 that the herd between East Greenland .and Spitsbergen was 

 quite extinct. However, Ruud (1937) has lately adduced evi- 

 dence that may indicate the existence of a very few within 

 recent years. Thus he is inclined to credit a report of a whaler 

 who is positive that he saw one in 1917 in the ice between 

 latitude 64 and 65 N., off East Greenland. A still later report 

 is given of four bowheads shot "by mistake" in 1932 near the 

 edge of the ice pack north of Spitsbergen. A slab of whalebone 

 from one of these whales measuring 3.85 meters in length was 

 preserved in the Marine Museum in Norway and thus estab- 

 lished the identity. Probably then a very few bowheads are 

 still in existence in the Spitsbergen seas. They were probably 

 never quite exterminated in the Davis Strait and Baffin Bay 



