As it passed the next canoe the same performance, without the song, was repeated, continuing until the number of skin pokes made it impossible for the whale to dive. Then the natives paddled up to finish the animal with their flint-headed killing lances. When the whale was dead a slip, or runway, had to be cut to the edge of the water and the carcass secured by walrus-hide lines passed round a rude windlass constructed of a rounded cake of ice and a piece of driftwood. Then the huge body could be hoisted up, or, if the edge of the ice was too rough, cut in while rolling over and over in the water. The meat, blubber, “black skin,” and bone were equally divided and sent ashore on sleds, where they could be dressed and prepared for the winter. [Illustration: The Amagansett whale covered with ice after the blubber had been stripped off the carcass. ] The advent of the white man to engage in beach, or floe, whaling was a momentous event for the natives of northern Alaska and was the beginning of the end of their age-old methods. The first attempts made at Point Barrow in 1884 were without result, but two years later, under the Pacific Steam Whaling Company, a successful footing was gained and the Eskimos began to adopt the white man’s guns, bombs, and other gear. The changes introduced by the white man were profound and the Eskimo of today has almost completely adopted his methods and materials; even the native boat—the only practical one for floe whaling—has been modified; the ancient superstitions are gone and the Eskimos have acquired a taste for the luxuries of civilization. Trading stations have been established at various points along the Arctic coast. Point Barrow boasts of an extensive native village besides several white residents, and further to the eastward the whalers often wintered at Herschel Island, increasing the profits of the voyage by trade in furs. But bowhead whaling is almost a thing of the past. The present low price of baleen for either white man or Eskimo, and the closed season on fur have sealed the fate of the Arctic whaler. The hunt for right whales still goes on but has been robbed of much of its picturesqueness, for the shore whalers soon learned that the animals could be shot with the harpoon-gun from their little steamers. But since the baleen has fallen in price they are not of very much greater value than the large fin whales; in Japan a humpback is really more appreciated because its flesh is much better for eating than that of any other species. Right whales are often taken on the coast of Long Island, N. Y., and even now, at Amagansett, a whale-boat is kept in readiness to be launched whenever a spout is seen. In February, 1907, a crew under the leadership of Captain Josh Edwards killed a large right whale, the skeleton and baleen of which were secured for the Museum at an expense of $3,200. [Illustration: