The Nome nugget., 1902-01-01

lCc IldSSeS. lanOeS VIII DC elthor launched or put on the sleds, according | to the emergency, and there is aC rest until the secure ice foot is reached again. Take it right thu ough, this flee whaling is no easy life, but it is healthy full of excitement and aboundS in in cidents which will call forth all of q mans determination and resourcelul- ness.
 The first whales to appear are a small and exceedingly active species. by the natives called ''ignootow:" These whales are a kind of abortive bowhead, or rather bowhead that has become peculiarly and specially adapted 10 the life between the heavy northern ice masses. learned to call him the ice whale. He does not mind in the least to break through ice three to four feet thick for a chance to breathe or spout. The bowhead rather shuns the necessity to do so. The baleen of this species never grows very
 
 weighed only about 400, so we are never sotvery hot after this species, and any way nine chances out of ten they will get away from you after all under the ice. Next come the young bow heads, one year, two year and three year-OldS, as we soon learn to dis tinguish them by the length and weight of their>whalebone, and so on in pro cession, the small whales ahead of the larger ones, the sizes increasing ap- parently with the growing abundance of the whale food, carried steadily up by the current from the south, the whales will pass day after day for two months in seemingly endless numbers. Near to the tailend of this procession would come the COW whales with their new born calves as yet. hardly month hold. They have to travel slowly. and therefore often fall prey to the hunters. l have never seen d bOwhead whale COW with calf with less than 1900 pounds Of baleen in her head, d fact which led me to conclude that bowhead must be at least 50 years old before it reaches maturity. The calf is the greatest native delicacy. have often eaten the meat. It is as tender and as juicy as the best tenderloin of beef and tasted as good, at least to me. The rearguatd of this army of whales is always formed | by what the natives call the ships whales-big, bulky whales, who, slug 1 glsh and slow, seemed to have un- | willingly torn themselves away from the rich feeding grounds in the south, ! and were perhaps only forced to the north by the clurning propeller of an .early whaling steamer.
 You would never more take any stock in the stories of the extinction. of the bowhead whale if you for one spring would watch them migrating past Point Barrow. There will be whales enough to kill for years to come along the northwestern Alasaan coast; and you may tell me about the sport you have had shooting tigers in the East Indian jungle or facing lions on the African desert, or batting grizzlies in the Rocky mountains, or lying in ambush for the elephant in .Ceylop, but for good, ex- citing and exhilirating sport give me a whale hunt at Point Barrow in good .native canoe, manned by eight or nine stalwart aud fearless Eskimos on a clear and frosty morning in the spring. There you are, lying quietly with your canoe on calm, sunlit sheet of water of lake-like expansion, surrounded by heavy ice masses, forming miniature landscape, all in blue and white. Float ing pieces of ice are lazily drifting with the hardly perceptible currents. Every once and while s"al will ripple the water slightly and then poke up his head and, full of curiosity, look all around, just as if to invite the nSnter to take shot at him. But the seal IS sale just now. Myriads of ducks are flying overhead, bound to the north, the monotonous noise made by thehntteringo of their wings being pune tuated by the screech of an occas ional Icon, while whales will break water un- moiested all around you. Then all at ence' blow, you hear the spout. There over against that high point of ice, seemingly rubbing his back against an overhanging prong, is the whale. Your boatheader has already with a strong and swift stroke of his steering paddle turned the bOwsof the canoe in the di- rection. Eight strong paddles are dip ped simultaneously deep into the water and with strong, absolutely 0uoiseless, strokes, fairly lift, the canoe. built on the lines ofa racer, and shoot her ahead. A quick glance around at yenr lines and your gear; everything is in order, and then you fasten your eye on your 1 whale, It seems but moment till you