WHITE WHALES. 173 



Aehshannook, at the wish I had expressed of 

 having the Esquimaux children taught to write 

 and read the book. They often pointed in the 

 direction the others were coming, and gave me 

 to understand that they would soon arrive. W e 

 returned to the Fort, and walking by the side 

 of the river we saw numbers of white whales 

 which frequent it at this season of the year, and 

 many of which are harpooned from a boat that 

 is employed, and usually carries three or four 

 of the Company's servants. The harpooner 

 killed one to-day, which measured fourteen feet 

 long, and eight in girth, and weighed it was 

 supposed a ton weight. The blubber is boiled 

 at the Fort, and the oil sent to England as an 

 article of the Company's trade. When the Es- 

 quimaux visit us from the tent, they generally 

 go to the spot where the carcases of the whales 

 are left to rot after the blubber is taken, and 

 carry away a part, but generally from the fin or 

 the tail ; they have been known, however, to 

 take the maggots from the putrid carcase, and to 

 boil them with train oil as a rich repast. They 

 are extremely filthy in their mode of living. 

 The Esquimaux who was engaged at the Fort 

 as an intepreter, used to eat the fish raw as he 

 took them out of the net, and devour the head 

 and entrails of those that were cooked by. the 



