1908.] 



MAMMALS. 



127 



Mackenzie, at Cape Bathurst, and in Franklin Bay/^ The Arctic 

 Ocean north of the Mackenzie is still visited by many ^Yllaling ves- 

 sels, some of which winter at Baillie Island and Langton Bay, 

 though Herschel Island is a more general resort. While at the latter 

 point in the smnmer of 1894, Russell recorded that the whaling fleet 

 left on August 11 for the whaling grounds between Richards Island 

 and Cape Bathurst, where, during the preceding summer, they had 

 made the gTeatest catch in the history of Arctic Avhaling, the Narwhal 

 having taken 64: bowhead whales, the Balaena 62, and the others from 

 9 to 40 each.^ 



From a letter received from Sergt. F. J. Fitzgerald, of the North- 

 west Mounted Police, dated at Herschel Island in the autumn of 

 1904, I glean the following facts relative to the whaling industry. 

 In the winter of 1896-97 fifteen vessels wintered at Herschel Island, 

 and since then from one to six annually have wintered at that place 

 or at Baillie Island. Four vessels were then (1904) supposed to be 

 in winter quarters at Langton Bay, and two steamers were then win- 

 tering at Herschel Island. The largest catch was made about 1897, 

 Avhen one vessel took 69 whales, and two others of the fleet over 60 

 each. The steamer No.rwhal left Herschel Island in the autumn of 

 1904 with the product of 18 whales, taken during the three preceding 

 seasons. The largest number taken by one vessel in 1904 was 9, by 

 the steamer Jeannette. Two whales are said to pay for a season's 

 work, and three for the wintering of a vessel. 



MacFarlane states that each season the Eskimo who frequented 

 Fort Anderson usually succeeded in killing one large whale, though 

 seldom more. On two occasions he heard the spouting of whales in 

 Franklin Bay, and he also observed their bones in several places.^ 

 Hanbury reports that the Eskimo find the bones of whales along the 

 coast near Ogden Bay.^ 



Monodon monoceros Linn. Narwhal. 



The narwhal is of regular occurrence in the more extensive inlets 

 among the Arctic Islands. 



During the summer of 1826, on Franklin's second expedition to the 

 Arctic Sea, Richardson saw at Point Toker, east of the mouth of the 

 Mackenzie, spearheads and ice chisels made from the horns of this 

 species, and the animal was stated by the Eskimo to frequent the 

 vicinity.^ Fisher recorded one which was killed August 11, 1819, in 

 Prince Regent Inlet (near Port Bowen) . Its weight was estimated at 



« Narrative Second Expedition to Polar Sea, pp. 35, 229, 239, 1828. 



& Expl. in Far North, p. 148, 1898. 



c Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XXVIII, p. 730, 1905. 



^ Sport and Travel in Nortliland of Canada, p. 139, 1904. 



^ Narrative Second Expedition to Polar Sea, p. 209, 1828. 



