The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1897-08-22

| as seventy-one states like Massachusetts
rolled into one, or as large as England,
Ireland, Scotland, France, Wales, Spain,
Portugal Switzerland and Belgium
combined. But the most westerly point
of Uncle Sans domain Is way down in
latitude "a degrees, and Is known as the
Island of Attoo, which is the farthest
west in the Aleutian group. Attoo Is
| 1900 miles west of Portland, Me-, and
| is 5000 miles west of San Francisco, and
| thereby the center of the United States
| between the east and west is point in
| the Pacific Ocean about 100 miles west of
| San Francisco"
"How about the life Of whaler and
the cold weather in Behring Strait?'
Eyes, l began this story with state
ment in regard to the weather, and
want to say that all men must have am
| pie protection in the way of food, shell
ter and fur clothing to live in Alaska,
replied Mr. Foster. "Well, the bark Nor
man carried forty-fve men, all told.
Each whaling vessel usually carries five
whaleboats, with a crew of seven men
for each boat. 'If
NEARLY all of the whaling vessels in
the Behring Sea are owned by firms in
New Bedford, Mass, and the vessels
have sailed around the Horn. The cap
tain of q whaling vessel usually receives
one-thirty-fifth of all the proceeds from
the season as his pay, and the pay of the
other men range down IN accordance
with their position until the lowest man,
perhaps. who works on the Storage, re-
ceives 1-1SO of the proceeds. l was gone
nine months on the trip, and my share
| was 1000. Now, all these men were fH-
| ly prepared for the cold. 1 wore flannel
underwear next to the skin; then suit
of underwear made of the skin of Carl
bou, tanned with the hair on by the Es-
quimaux, and worn with the fur inside;
then sealskin trousers, and a sealskin or
a reindeer skin overcoat, with big hood
for the head; wooden mittens, with wa
terproof sealslSn mittens over them;
heavy wooden hose and waterproof seal
skin boots that came up to the knees or
| the thighs. We lined out boots with
| The whalers call these boots 'masinkas,'
| and they also apply the same name to a
| friendly tribe of Esquimaux. 'Masinka'
moss which the Esquimaux brought US.
| Is an Esquimaux word, meaning good
MEN going to the Klondyke must not
only learn to keep their feet warm, but
| they must learn to prevent perspira ton
If they wish to escape having their feet
frozen. All whalerS make a mat out
of manila rope to place under each foot
and keep 1t from touching the sole of the
boot. This mat allows the air to pass
under the foot, and the foot Is kept dry.
Otherwise the feet perspire and even
when the feet are almost frozen the per-
spiration will start. We found that the
overcoats made of reindeer skin were
warmer than those of sealskin. Some
natives make overcoats out of the intes-
| tines of the whale or walrus. The intes-
| tines are cut and dried and fiattened,
and sewed together with deer sinews,
| with the seams running around the body
| These are the gut coats spoken of by
whalers, and they are exceedingly warm.
But if one buys any clothing from the
Esquimaux he must hang 1t in the air for
several days before wearing it, because
1t will invariably be full of lice. Now,
with clothing such as I have described,
one can live comfortably when the tenn
perature is 60 below zero. The cold is
dry, and on still day, when no wind
was blowing, l have lain on an ice pack
when the temperature was 60 below zero.
| But of course, one feels the cold and
must guard against it all the time. And
| let me say here that a man must not
| drink whisky if he wants to stand the
| Arctic cold. All whalers touch whisky
very sparingly-they drink coffee. Hot
| coee is the best drink for the human
constitution in those high ATTITUDES.
whaling. Well, it Is exciting and
dangerous. This whaling vessel anchors
near school of whales. The small
whaleboats, each with its crew of four
or five men and n officer In command,
strt out in various. directions. A whale
boat is thirty or forty feet long, coiled
$50 fathms, or 800 feet, of rop=, and a
small tub containing rs fathoms of rope.
The officer in command stands at the
stern of the boat, and when a whale Is
sighted it Is his duty to give orders so
that the boat can be brought as near the
whale as possible without being in dam
ger. The boat steerer Is a petty officer
who Is located in the bow of the boat,
and he is the one who throws the har-
pooh. After the whale has been har-
pooned then the fun begins, and then
the boat steerer and the captain ex-
change places. The captain goss to the
bow to give orders and the boat steerer
goes to the stern and takes care of the
loggerhead, which corresponds to cap
stan on a river steamer. One end of the
rope, or line,- is fastened to the l1arpoon
and tn line is run around the logg erhead
two or three times and the rest of it lies
when a whale Is harpooned he dives
under the water and swims away at
lively speed, and then 1t is that the line
must BE- allowed to run without being
caught fast In any of the apparatus.
Threeor four men hold the line and see
that it uncoils smoothly.,I have seen
whale swim away so fast that the line
would run off the loggerhead at such
sped as to make the wood smoke On
each harpoon is Piercy gun, with a
barrel 10 or is inches long, and it is load
ed with a bomb lance that cxplodcs
when the whale is struck. A whale can't
remain under water mora than twenty
MINUTES until 1t has to come to the sur