The Nome daily nugget., 1910-09-23
5owHEAD WHALING.
By John W. keIly,

these waters. Twenty years ago fifteen steamers and thirty sailing barks were engaged here in their pursuit.
 Sailing vessels could not compete with steamers and as they were lost CT condemned. no others v,r, outHtt,d t' take their place. When whale oil ifeii to 70 cents gallon the steamtr- removed their try works. and only hoi~ted in the scaIp.or the whale to which the baleen or whaIrbonc is at tached
 tu tN'6 whalebnuc dropped in pric, from $5 Der pound to sa and since then steamers that have been crushed In the ice have not been replaced.
 Whalebune has been used mostly rar corset stays, but some of it went into horse whips. and somy was shredded and the threads put into men and wo- mems dress goods to give them steI,. stiffentng and also to keep the gar ments in shape Scraps of whale bone We're used in making brushes
 Whip makers found that split bam- boo answered as we'll Us whaIcbanc and il did not break IS readily as whalebone in frosty weather.
 Another genius invented process ef making substitute corset stays from auiIls of feathers, which apparently had the elasticity and durability of whalebone
 These substitutes put many whale bone cutters in Germany. France. En- gland and America out of business Those cutters who still remained in the business attempted te bear the market.
 The whaleship owners resisted this by withdrawing their whole fleet. which Is now laid mp in Oakland Creek. California.
 The Karluk which was here last week. Is an independent whaIer- own ed hy g. r Cottle. Charles Born of Nome. and others. Having q Tone chance in the eastward. her catch of 20 whales has been unoquallea in the last II years
 The Herman, now in these waters. is only a tender to a shore station at Point Marrow However. she must necessarily pass through whaling grounds and to pick any leviathans that may be in the road. she carries a complete whaling crew, II. IL BodGsh k her master
 The Confienza. due here now. is a trader under command of James Me Kenna. veteran in the business. She also carries a whaling crew. She will also have some rare furs and curios on board
 | The Jeannctte was in these waters this year as tender. and alse carries q whaling crew under Charles r. Fol ey, formerly of the Monterey Her engines have been removed. conse- quently he movements are slow. When a whale is sighted from the | "crows nest" al the foretopmast head the hoats are lowered, each containing two skilled whalers ca mate and boat steerer) and four sailors. The chace is made under sail, as oars would l scare the whale. On approaching the whale it is struck with a harpoon to which a "darting" whale gun is at ! tached. As the harpoon enters the | trigger is sprung and the gun sends a tonite bomb inlto its vitals. Then ! the whale is struck with a second gum lcarrying like bomb, and but no har- 1 poon. If these two bombs fail to kill the animal, the crew haul the boat up to the whale by the line attached to the harpoon and the whale is dis patched with a shoulder gun, or brass blundeFbuss which carries longer bomb than a darting gun.
 The ship steames alongside. makes the whale fast, a boatsteerer gets down on the whales back. chops the head off with an axe. It is then hoisted lon board. A cutting spade is run around the roof of the whales mouth in the gums at the roots of the bone, land the whole head of bone dropped lon deck. The useless head is thrown Ioverboard and the body of the whale iwth all it's blubber and meat cast ladrift. Bowhead whales average 100 Ibarrels of oil and 1900 pounds of bone.
 Years ago whales caught leveathans here that yielded 250 barrels of oil and 1000 pounds of hone. Within the last 4O years only two of these mon sters have been taken, one in 1904 by the Beleydere. Capt. Geo. r. Hilton. land the other in 1908 by the Jeannette. ICapt Frank Long. These giants are like the big trees (giant seguoias) of ICalifornia, survival of a former lgeological period.