MAMMALS. 289 



In January, 1879, while sledging near the mouth of the Kuskoquim Eiver, a considerable num- 

 ber of White Whales were seen one evening among the broken ice near shore. They were in au 

 irregular school containing twenty or more individuals. They are seen sometimes in winter off the 

 Yukon mouth when the ice is driven off shore or broken uj). 



At Point Hope, on July 20, 1881, the females were seen gwimming up and down the shore 

 singly, each with two or three males keeping close alongside. Each female was accompanied by 

 a young of the year, which kept close above its mother's back or just behind her. When one of 

 the females was shot and ran ashore the young one swam back and forth at a distance for some 

 time, raising its head well out of water at intervals to see its parent. 



At Saint Michaels the first ones seen in spring usually arrive between the 5th and 10th of 

 June, soon after the ice moves off" shore or leaves the inner bays. This is the spawning time for the 

 herring which swarm along the shore, and the White Whales follow them into all the bays and in- 

 lets. On calm June mornings great schools of these whales, numbering from twenty to over a hun- 

 dred animals, are frequently seen in the bay at Saint Michaels, and their glistening milk-white 

 color shows handsomely against the dark green water. These visits to the bay were usually made 

 from 3 to. 6 o'clock a. m., and a little later in the season between midnight and 3 or 4 in the morn- 

 ing. Whenever they feed during the day flocks of Kittiwake Gulls usually hover over them ready 

 to pick up the fragments of fish which escape from the whales' jaws as they masticate beneath 

 the surface. 



About the middle of June the first young are seeu. For the first few weeks after their birth 

 they are very small, and have a great bulging forehead, which extends beyond a vertical line 

 from the end of the jaws. Their color is a dark livid bluish or dull bluish green, so dark that they 

 look almost black when seen at a distance in the water. They keep close to their mothers, and 

 the latter swim very carefully, the young usuallj"^ resting on their backs just beside the thin up- 

 ward extension of the skin, which appears like a false fin. During the remainder of the season 

 they are generally distributed along the coast. The closing of the bays and streams by ice the 

 last of October drives them off shore and south each autumn. 



During the middle of August, 1881, these whales were abundant close along the shore of the 

 Arctic from Kotzebue Sound to Point Hope. At the latter place the Eskimo shot several with 

 rifles as they swam close to the beach, and told us that the whales visit the shore here every 

 year at this season to pair. They are very abundant in Kotzebue Souud at times and the Eskimo 

 kill them from their kyaks. They frequently drive them aground in the shallow water at the 

 head of the sound and kill them with spears and lances. About IS'orton Sound in Bering Sea 

 they are hunted and speared from kyaks or are shot from some jutting point near which they pass 

 when entering or leaving some small bay or cove. 



In order to disable the animals at once they must be shot through the spinal column, otherwise 

 they will swim a long distance and be lost. As a rule they are rather shy of a boat and are not 

 easily approached, but on several occasions when I have been sailing along the coast in a whale- 

 boat I have seen them come close alongside, and in one instance the animal raised its eyes well 

 out of the water and stared at us steadily for several seconds. 



The Eskimo set large strong-meshed nets, heavily weighted, off outlying points for these 

 animals, and in rough weather they are easily taken. In calm weather they see and avoid the nets. 

 Small ones are sometimes caught in seal-nets in autumn. It "was one of our amusements at Saint 

 Michaels to set a "Beluga" net, dividing the prizes among the natives. This sport ceased, 

 however, when a school of "Belugas" struck the net one day and by their combined strength 

 reduced it to shreds. 



Along the low, flat coast from Saint Michaels to the Kuskoquim Eiver are many tide creeks 

 running back into brackish marshes. From midsummer until these streams freeze over they 

 abound in tom-cods. In pursuit of these the White Whales go up these streams regularly every 

 night after darkness has settled over the land for an hour or two, and while camping on the banks 

 of these streams I have heard dozens of them blowing with a quick, forcible, hissing or sighing 

 sound as they hunted up and down the creek. They hunt about the Yukon mouths at night in the 

 same way and are found just off shore among the flats and sand-bars during the day. 

 S. Mis. 156 37 



