NKLsoN] SEAL-FLOATING WHITE- WHALE NETS 131 



other seasons, they are so thin that they sink and the hunter loses 

 them. To insure their floating while being towed, it is a common prac- 

 tice to make slits in the skin at various points and, with a long pointed 

 instrument of deerhorn, to loosen the blubber from the muscle for a 

 space of a foot or more in diameter. Then, by use of a hollow tube, 

 made from the wing-bone of a bird or from other material, air is blown 

 in and the place inflated ; wooden plugs are then inserted in the slits 

 and driven in tightly to prevent the air from escaping. By the aid of 

 several'such inflated spots the seal is floated and the danger of losing 

 it is avoided. 



Figure 13, plate lit, from Sledge island, is one of the probes used for 

 loosening the blubber in the manner described. It consists of a long, 

 curved rod of deerhorn, round in cross section and pointed at the top. 

 It is set in a slit made in the round wooden handle and held in position 

 by means of a lashing of spruce root. A similar instrument was 

 obtained at Cape Nome. 



Figure 19, plate lii, from Sledge island, shows a set of eight of the 

 described wooden plugs, flattened oval in cross section. They are 

 fashioned to a thin, rounded point at one end and are broad and trun- 

 cated at the other, giving them a wedge shape. 



During the latter part of August and early i)art of September nets are 

 set near rocky islets or reefs to catch white whales. These nets are simi- 

 lar to those intended for seals, except that they have larger meshes 

 and are longer and wider. Whales enter them and are entangled 

 exactly as fish are caught in gill nets, and, being held under water by 

 the weight of heavy anchor stones, are drowned and remain until the 

 hunter makes his visit to the net. As these nets are set so far from 

 shore that it is impossible to observe them from the land, a daily visit 

 is made in a kaiak to inspect them. Sometimes white whales are cap- 

 tured in seal nets near the shore, but this occurs only once or twice in 

 a season. Occasionally a school of these whales, while swimming in 

 company, encounter one of these nets set for them and by their united 

 strength tear it to pieces and escape. 



BIRD SNARES AND NETS 



The Eskimo have various ingenious methods of taking ptarmigan 

 and water fowl. During the winter small sinew snares are set among 

 the bushes where the ptarmigan resort to feed or to rest. Sometimes 

 little brush fences are built, with openings at intervals in which the 

 snares are_set so that the birds may be taken when trying to pass 

 through. Figure 10, plate li, illustrates one of these snares, from Nor- 

 ton sound. It consists of a stake nearly 14 inches in length, having a 

 rawhide running noose attached to its upper end by a sinew lashing; 

 a twisted sinew cord about a foot in length serves to attach the snare 

 and stake to the trunk or branch of an adjacent bush. 



As spring opens the male birds commence to molt and the brown 



