CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE NATURAL HISTORY OF ALASKA. 201 



ing a breadth of two to two and a half inches, exclusive of the neck, by which it is affixed, by means 

 of thongs, to the shaft of wood, which has a length of six to eight feet. 



The hunter usually selects some young boy, of about sixteen years, to accompany him on the 

 seach for these creatures. A two-holed kaiuk is used, the boy acting as the propelling power when 

 the prey is sighted, and on him depends much of the success of the hunter, who is of course the 

 teacher of the boy as to the method to be pursued. The boy obeys implicitly all instructions; and, 

 as the quest of whales is attended with much privation, they often undergo considerable suffering 

 before one is struck. 



The conditions of the weather are noted, for neither a gale nor a calm is ventured in, the hitler 

 enabling the Whale to observe the approach of the hunters, while a gently undulating sea is preferred 

 for that reason. When a Whale is sighted the occupants of the canoe approach, with ihe.least possi- 

 ble noise, and when near the place, where the Whale is expected to rise, t lie hunter lays aside his pad- 

 dle and takes his spear in hand, and with it directs the boy where to proceed. As soon as the Whale 

 rises the hunter launches the spear into the side of the creature, and the canoe is instantly urged 

 backward out of the splash made by the plunge of the Whale. The motion of its body breaks off the 

 brittle head of the spear, and each movement of the victim tends to drive the piece of glass deeper 

 into its flesh until some vital spot is touched; the whale then sinks to the bottom, where it is 

 supposed to remain for three days, when the gases, generated by decomposition, cause it to rise to 

 the surface and, in course of time, is drifted to the shore. Persons are sent from the village to 

 scan the sea for the floating carcass, or to search the coves, reefs, and bays for the stranded body. 



The number of whales procured in this manner may amount, at lliuliuk, to as many as fltteen 

 in a single summer. In the summer of 1879 no less than seventeen were struck, and but three 

 became available to the people; the currents and winds often carrying them far beyond the place 

 where struck. 



It was related to me that a whale carcass has been found on Unalashka Island that had a spear- 

 head sticking in it, which had been thrown by a Kadiak native whaler; and the body had drifted 

 nearly GOO miles in a west-southwest direction. 



When the carcass of a cast whale is found, the people of the nearest village cease all other 

 work and hasten to the scene, where the blubber and flesh is quickly stripped, and then carried to 

 the village, where the pieces are hung up to dry for food. 



In former times the entire Aleutian population lived to a great extent on the flesh and blub 

 ber from these creatures; but of late years their time is so much occupied with hunting sea-otters 

 and seals that they devote but little time to the pursuit of them. The Atkhan and Attu people 

 do not now engage in the chase of whales. 



1 have heard two names applied to the larger whales, and am not positive to which species 

 they should be referred. I think the name of Chi' thttkh belongs to the Humpback; and 1 ques- 

 tion the application of the name Chi Tca'Tch luJch to the Finback. 



On many of the islands of the Aleutian Chain are ancient village sites still showing the ar- 

 rangement of the ribs of the larger cetaceaus having been employed instead of wood to support the 

 turf sides of their former dwellings. On Attu Island I saw a single slab, probably cut from the 

 lower jaw of a sperm whale, that had been used as a door to the extranee of one of their ancient 

 houses. The slab was about thirty inches wide by forty inches long, and nearly two inches thick. 

 It required two men to carry it. 



Genus Bal^enoptera. 

 Bal^noptera davidsoni Scam. Finback Whale. 

 There are certainly two species of Finback Whales occurring in the waters about the Aleutian 

 Islands and the Peninsula of Aliaska. 



There is considerable difference in the size of the two species; the larger one being more fre- 

 quently seen on the south side of the islands and the peninsula, while the smaller is plentiful on 

 the north side during May, June, and July. 



Having but little opportunity to observe the actions of the two species, I must dismiss them 

 by giving an Aleut word CM Jca'Tch luM, as applicable to one of the two species of Finbacks, though 

 I am not certain to which it belongs. 

 S. Mis. 155 26 



