| Show SIBERIAN HUNTERS no how whales are caught by naties native 1 rid reindeer er skins ekins eseo Us d as floaters floater I 1 t captain E J gifford of the wha ing bark Triton relates the particulars of in an interesting whale hunt of which chic he was a witness while lying at an a chor in a small ba bay y on the east coasts coast the natives of that region are aie people of a low grade oi of i intelligence telli gence their chief employment being the chase base and this is confined chiefly to io the pursuit and capture of inhabitants of the arctic waters that wash the siberian coast while ignorant of all the attributes f of what we are pleased to call civilization these people have become experts in the vocation that furnishes them with the necessaries of life and their mariner manner of capturing the whale might in ig gh t prove a pr able study to masters of the wha ng fleet which annually visits the waters the tha story is told by captain gifford as follows we had bad been lying at anchor for several days in a small and almost landlocked land locked bay and had done some little trading with the inhabitants of a native village situated about halt half a mile inland one morning just at daybreak all hands were awakened by a great reat hubbub on the shore the cause cause of which was soon ascertained ascertained to be the presence of a school of sperm w whales bales in the offing three or four I 1 miles outside the entrance of the harbor in an incredibly short space of time ten canoes each containing from six to eight natives native put off from the beach and made straight out toward where an occasional jet of water marked the spot where the big fellows were sporting 1 I was P bood deal puzzled to know how bow ti fellows wom brero guen E g to cap cap t gym h Q al i ie h is byno oy no means mean san an easy prey to the best trained boats crey crew supplied as they are with all the modern appliances consequently I 1 watched their movements with no little il ii 1 rest the boats kept close to ther th erand and a approached the school a great amount of caution when within about yards of the nearest whale the canoes separated and as the big fellow came up to blow they rapidly closed in from three sides at once the whale was wasby by this time lazily lazi ay iy rolling in the trough of the sea apparently patently ly unaware of the approach of his enemies so well timed was the apac approach ach of the canoes that they were all within easy reach of the whale whala when the ille leader gave the signal to throw the harpoons in a moment at least thirty har harpoons were sticking from tho the shiny back of the whale and the canoes shot hack bick out of reach of tho the big flukes in less time than it takes to toll tell it and here comes the strange part of the performance attached to each harpoon was about feet of line and ou on the end of each line were reindeer skins inflated with air in one or two instances casks ivera were attached to the lines you can imagine the situation Here was the whale w with ith enough buoy attached to him to float p and when he attempted to sound he would be brought to the surface again only to receive a shower of hand lances from the moes inoes the sport did not last long aul ald four hours from the time the canes cane ea left tho the beach they towed the w W ale in in and men and women were at work wik cut cutting ti hirn him up 11 |
