NELSON] SEAL-FLOATING——-WHITE-WHALE NETS Mail 
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 Li11, 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 Li, 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 part 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 
