Book Description

Excerpt from The Washington Historical Quarterly, 1918, Vol. 9 The natives of the country gained a large part of their livelihood from the pursuit, and manifested much hardihood in the capture Of the different kinds Of whales. The chase was invested with much superstition, both by the Aleutians and the Eskimo. Certain cere monies were Observed, particular care being taken as to the weapons used, and much dependence was placed in charms and medicine. Among the Aleutians even human bodies were stolen and secreted to give the possessors good fortune in the hunt.3 The Kodiak whalers Qised a harpoon with a slate head which detached from the handle and remained in the wound, causing death, after which the: carcass was towed or drifted with the tide to the shore. The Eskimos used harpoons Of fine workmanship equipped with heads of ivory and slate; and floats were attached to impede the progress Of the animal. The taking Of a whale was an occasion Of great rejoicing among the native inhabitants. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.