No. 382.] ANIMALS OF NORTHWESTERN ALASKA. 727 
walrus (Odobenus obesus), was far from abundant, although 
they were frequently seen during the season of open and par- 
tially open water, swimming about amongst the loose ice or 
asleep on floating cakes of ice, either alone or in small herds. 
The natives pursued them in their large skin boats, using a 
heavy harpoon with a float of inflated sealskin attached to the 
line, but employing the rifle freely whenever opportunity offered. 
During the summer of 1883, they had taken about a dozen up 
to the middle of August. 
The polar whale (Babera mysiticetus), the “ bowhead ” of the 
whalemen, occurred near Point Barrow only during the spring 
migrations, when they were traveling northward to their 
breeding grounds near the mouth of the Mackenzie River. 
They appeared first as stragglers when the leads began to open 
about the middle of April, gradually increased in numbers, and 
continued to pass until about the first of July. Except when 
the leads were wholly closed, whales were continually passing 
at this season, even when the leads were full of loose ice. 
Indeed, the whales seemed to have learned that they were much 
safer among the ice floes than in the open water, and could 
often be heard blowing in the loose pack, when there was a 
broad open channel for them to travel in. On the return 
migration’ which begins about the middle or end of August, 
they pass by at a long distance from the land. Consequently, 
the natives pursued them only during the spring migrations. 
About twenty umiaks, carrying each a crew of eight or ten 
men, were fitted out at the two villages and dragged on sleds 
out across the rough ice to the edge of the open water. This 
whale fishery was the great event of the year, eagerly antici- 
pated and carefully prepared for. It was even invested with a 
semi-religious character, by a series of elaborate ceremonies 
and a complicated system of tabus and observances. The 
umialiks, or owners of umiaks, who were all men of great impor- 
tance in the village, wore peculiar ornaments, and the crews 
were carefully selected and regularly hired for the whole sea- 
son. Whenever there was open water and any prospect of 
whales, the crews spent the whole time on the ice, while the 
women traveled backwards and forwards from the village with 
