File:The Arctic whaleman; or, Winter in the Arctic Ocean- being a narrative of the wreck of the whale ship Citizen (1857) (14586248990).jpg

Identifier: arcticwhalemanor00hol (find matches)
Title: The Arctic whaleman; or, Winter in the Arctic Ocean: being a narrative of the wreck of the whale ship Citizen ..
Year: 1857 (1850s)
Authors: Holmes, Lewis
Subjects: Citizen (Ship : 1843-1849) Whaling Shipwrecks
Publisher: Boston, Wentworth
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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h he resolvedto make one effort, which, if unsuccessful, mustbe fatal. Having commended himself to God,he rushed to the margin of the cave, and spranginto the air, providentially succeeded in graspingthe pendulous rope, and was saved. June had now come, with no very particularincident in the monotony of hut life, except, per-haps, that of increased earnestness and desire tobehold once more the sail of a friendly vessel, andonce more to tread her decks. As the time ap-proached when we should realize such an event,hours seemed days, and weeks months. Wevisited again and again the high eminence onEast Cape, where we had a commanding viewof the ocean, to see if there was any immediateprospect of the ice breaking up and drifting away. THE MANNER OF KILLING DUCKS AND OTHERFOWL PRACTICED BY THE NATIVES. In migrating either to the north or south, ducksand other fowl usually fly in large flocks, andgenerally very low. In order to kill the greatestnumber, the natives would station themselves at
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NINE MONTHS IN THE ARCTIC. 191 one end of a valley, near the bottom of it; and,if possible, they would conceal themselves fromthe ducks behind little hillocks. Or if at the ter-mination of a valley there should be a precipi-tous descent of several feet, the natives would besure to take their position in such a locality.The fowl usually flew along in valleys runningnorth and south. Thus stationed, with neither guns, bows, norarrows, but with a number of small balls in theirhands, connected with each other by strings fromtwelve to eighteen inches in length, they awaitthe approach of their game. When the fowl aresufficiently near for their purpose, the nativesrise up, and throw, with singular force and pre-cision, these balls at the flock of passing ducks.At first, when these balls leave their hands, theyare all together and compact; but with increas-ing distance, they will open and spread them-selves to the extent of the strings by which theyare tied together, and, by the time they get

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