WHITE WHALE. 
231 
on board. In this way the time goes by, there being 
nothing but bodily fatigue to induce one to desist from 
labour. We lose count of time, and grow confused as 
to the proper ordering of a days occupation. 
The 13th of August has come, and after a short 
council it is decided to try again for the north, and if 
we are unequal to the struggle, owing to the unhealed 
wound in our ship s side, to sail south once more. In 
the afternoon we killed a white whale (Beluga cato - 
don). These little fellows are from ten to sixteen feet 
in length, and give a ton of oil to every six whales. 
The hides are used for making a fine boot leather, 
worn by the Norwegian ladies, but our people rarely 
bring home the skin, as there is no suitable way for 
dressing it, and no market for it. 
The white whale is beyond all comparison, says 
Brown, so far as its importance to the Greenlanders and 
Eskimo is concerned, the whale of Greenland. Like the 
narwhal, it is indigenous, but it is only seen on the 
coast of Danish Greenland during the winter months, 
