728 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. (VOL. XXXII. 
their food, and the boats were not brought in till the close of 
the season. Each boat was supplied with several harpoons, to 
each of which was attached a short line and a pair of floats 
made of inflated sealskins, and their plan was to attach so many 
of these floats to the whale at successive “risings” that he 
could no longer sink, and they could then paddle up and 
despatch him. They formerly used stone-headed lances for 
this purpose. We brought home one, a magnificent piece of 
flint chipping as big as the palm of my hand, mounted on a 
shaft 13 feet long. At the time of our visit, however, they were 
all supplied with regular steel whale lances, and some even had 
bomb guns. 
The dead whale was at once towed to the edge of the solid 
floe, and all hands — men, women, and children, for the news 
was never long reaching the village — set to work to cut off all 
the blubber and meat they could get at. Not seldom the whale 
sank, or was carried off under the ice, before they succeeded in 
securing more than a part of the blubber. Every one in the 
village was entitled to all the meat, blubber, and “ blackskin ” 
that he could get, but the whalebone, which had a commercial 
value, was divided equally among the boats that were in sight 
when the whale was struck. 
The “ blackskin,” or epidermis of the whale, which is about 
an inch thick and of a somewhat India-rubber-like consistence, 
is esteemed a great delicacy, as indeed is the case among all 
Eskimos who can obtain it. In favorable seasons as many as 
ten or a dozen whales have been taken, and bones of the whale 
are plentifully scattered all along the shore and in the village, 
where jawbones and ribs were used for posts and staging 
timbers. 
Each season of open water, one or two large schools of white 
whales passed along near the shore, and the Eskimos usually 
shot a few every year. They were highly prized, not only for 
their flesh and blubber, but for their skins, which make the 
best material for waterproof boot soles, and, when plenty, — 
rarely used to make a very superior quality of harpoon lines. 
We found that the natives had a good deal of narwhal ivory, 
easily recognized by its spiral grain, and they informed us that 
