MAMMALS OF NOETHERN CANADA 235 



John FranMin.* We then and there distinctly heard one 

 or two large whales spouting at a great rate in a narrow 

 lane of water, which was clearly visible at some distance 

 amid the immense field of unibroken ice. In the end of 

 June, 1864, he had a similar experience in the same quarter. 

 Since the advent of American whalers, however, into these 

 narrow seas, about twenty years ago, whales are now said 

 to be rapidly diminishing in numbers to the westward of the 

 Mackenzie, and this will soon be the case in the narrow eastern 

 seas of the land-locked portions of the Canadian polar ocean. 

 In several suitable spots on the south shores of Franklin 

 Bay and Langton Harbour we saw some ribs, crown, and 

 other large bones of the whale, and certain other remains, 

 including a human skull and ancient Eskimo huts or winter 

 houses. With the exception of two families, with one large 

 boat, or umiak, and three kayaks, or canoes, who had been 

 directed to come there from Liverpool Bay to meet and 

 assist us collecting birds, eggs, etc., and one or two young 

 men who accompanied us from Fort Anderson, we never saw 

 any other representatives of this intelligent and interesting 

 race in that quarter. 



I think the Greenland whale has been observed by all of 

 the Arctic expeditions. Markham relates that the Nares 

 ships of 18Y5-76 witnessed numerous examples of the bottle- 

 nosed species near Davis Strait, but as they do not yield 

 much oil they are not in much request ; also one dead float- 

 ing Greenland whale, worth £1,000. One of Greely's party 

 found a rib of the latter as far north as latitude 82° 33'. 

 Upon the east side of Port Kennedy the bones of whales 

 were found in two places, a mile apart; the lowest was 180 

 feet and the highest 300 feet above the sea. They were 

 more or less buried upon a flat patch of rather rich earth and 

 nearly a mile inland. 



*He had previously — in June, 1857 — obtained a distant view, and 

 but for a prevailing blizzard would have had an equally close view 

 of Liverpool Bay in January, 1859. 



