Journal of the Third Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West PassageParry, William Edward, Sir
History
Journal of the Third Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage
Parry, William Edward, Sir
Arctic regions -- Discovery and exploration -- British; Fury (Ship); Hecla (Ship); Northwest Passage
Of their mode of killing seals in the winter I have already spoken in the
course of the foregoing narrative, as far as we were enabled to make
ourselves acquainted with it. In their summer exploits on the water, the
killing of the whale is the most arduous undertaking which they have to
perform; and one cannot sufficiently admire the courage and activity
which, with gear apparently so inadequate, it must require to accomplish
this business. Okotook, who was at the killing of two whales in the
course of a single summer, and who described the whole of it quite _con
amore_, mentioned the names of thirteen men who, each in his canoe, had
assisted on one of these occasions. When a fish is seen lying on the
water, they cautiously paddle up astern of him, till a single canoe,
preceding the rest, comes close to him on one quarter, so as to enable
the man to drive the _katteelik_ into the animal with all the force of
both arms. This having the _siatko_, a long _allek_, and the inflated
seal-skin attached to it, the whale immediately dives, taking the whole
apparatus with him except the _katteelik_ which, being disengaged in the
manner before described, floats to the surface and is picked up by its
owner. The animal re-appearing after some time, all the canoes again
paddle towards him, some warning being given by the seal-skin buoy
floating on the surface. Each man being furnished like the first, they
repeat the blows as often as they find opportunity, till perhaps every
line has been thus employed. After pursuing him in this manner,
sometimes for half a day, he is at length so wearied by the resistance of
the buoys, and exhausted by loss of blood, as to be obliged to rise more
and more often to the surface, when, by frequent wounds with their
spears, they succeed in killing him, and tow their prize in triumph to
the shore. It is probable that with the whale, as with the smaller
sea-animals, some privilege or perquisite is given to the first striker;
and, like our own fishermen, they take a pride in having it known that
their spear has been the first to inflict a wound. They meet with the
most whales on the coast of _Einwīllik_.
In attacking the walrus in the water they use the same gear, but with
much more caution than with the whale, always throwing the _katteelik_
from some distance, lest the animal should attack the canoe and demolish
it with his tusks. The walrus is in fact the only animal with which they
use any caution of this kind. They like the flesh better than that of
the seal; but venison is preferred by them to either of these, and indeed
to any other kind of meat.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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