Sketches From Oldest America 



and in October back to the Behring Sea, where it is 

 supposed to spend the winter months at the south- 

 ern edge of the ice. It is one of the large members 

 of the whale family, sometimes attaining a length 

 of sixty feet or more and yielding whalebone some 

 times over twelve feet in length. The Bow-head is 

 a timid, peaceful animal, preferring to visit the small 

 bays and secluded nooks of the northern coast, 

 where it can feed unmolested. 



All along the coast of Arctic Alaska, there are 

 lagoons of various sizes; many of them have streams 

 as feeders, while others have no feeders but have 

 openings into the ocean, which become temporarily 

 obliterated by sand when there is a heavy sea 

 breaking on shore. 



It was into the latter form of lagoon that, a very 

 long time ago, a school of Bow-heads had entered. 

 The wind blowing on shore had obliterated the 

 entrance, so the whales were entrapped with ap- 

 parently no means of escape, yet they all crossed 

 the beach and regained the ocean, a feat they prob- 

 ably could not accomplish to-day. The people 

 watched them as they worked their way over the 

 beach, the large ones making rapid progress while 

 the small ones were very slow. 

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