184 



SPEARING WHALES. 



fifty miles north of Churchill, and spear white 

 whales for the blubber. This they readily 

 assented to, and the day after they started, I 

 accompanied the officer in a boat to the point 

 where they were to be employed. We pitched 

 our tents near the place where they rested at 

 night, and were much amused at their dexterity 

 in spearing a number of whales on the following 

 day. In the course of two days they har- 

 pooned about forty, so numerous were these 

 animals in the Bay at the mouth of the river. 

 These Esquimaux were not unacquainted with 

 habits of cleanliness, for they were no sooner 

 ashore from spearing whales, than they changed 

 their dirty skin dress for one of a newer and 

 cleaner character; and in seating themselves 

 in a circle, around a small fire they had made, 

 I observed that while they boiled the skin of 

 the whale, and some partook of it, others were 

 eating the tail and the fin in a raw state. I 

 never knew natives more orderly and less 

 troublesome ; we were in their power, but so 

 far from annoying us, they never even came to 

 our tents, importuning for tobacco and other 

 articles, as is generally the case with Indians 

 when near their own encampment. 



Wishing to talk with them again on the 



