Page:The cruise of the Corwin.djvu/197

 rolling hitch was made, and a dozen willing hands landed the animal, a female. She measured about twelve feet in length and nine in circumference. They at once began to eat the tail and back fin raw, cutting off blocks of it and giving it to the children, not because they were hungry, but because they regarded it as so very palatable. Then a fire was built of driftwood. Looking back from the ship, only two red spots were visible on the beach and a group of fifty feasting Eskimos! Probably not a bit of the Belugas, except a little of the blubber, will be left by night. The attitudes of the riflemen, legs spread, rifle to shoulder, and eyes vividly on the alert, as they watched the animal's appearance above water, were very striking. These animals are quite abundant hereabouts, and used to be killed with spears that had heads made of stone or ivory. Whales were killed in the same manner. A much larger number of right whales is killed by the natives about the shores of Bering Sea and along the polar shores than is supposed. Almost every village gets from one to five every season. Then comes a joyful time. The bone belongs to the boat's crew that strikes the whale, the carcass to all the village. A mountain slope just to the northeast of Cape Lisburne is so covered at the top with