Early that afternoon, August 15th, we left Thule.
Harry Raven, Zoölogist, Shows how to Clean a Narwhal Skull.
The next morning when I came on deck we were just off Northumberland Island and I saw the very place where we had been wrecked and so nearly spent quite a time at.
I was on the crosstrees on the lookout for walrus and saw some seals and two that might have been walrus. When I got cold Bob Peary took my place. Soon afterward we stopped running on account of fog, and most everyone turned in to sleep, for with the all-the-time sunlight we never seem to find time to get enough sleep.
I was down in the main cabin when Mr. Nielsen came down and said to Carl, who speaks Danish, that there was a dead white [[107]]whale near. I got Dad and told him about it. In a few minutes they had a boat over and went out to get him. When they reached the floating animal they called back that it was a female narwhal, and not a white whale after all.
They towed it in and we put two or three tackles on it and started to get it aboard. It was about fifteen feet long and weighed I suppose over a ton. It had been dead quite a time and smelt pretty bad, so we decided to open it as it hung beside the boat and get the intestines out and some of the blubber off. The inner meat proved to be sound and all right.
Working on a Narwhal Skeleton.
We fixed a rowboat alongside and Harry Raven and Fred got in it and did the cutting up, with their oilskins on, for it was pretty messy. With the narwhal Harry found a little one. And he wasn’t so little either. He measured five feet seven inches. This was carefully embalmed. That is, Harry [[108]]pumped into its veins a fluid which preserves the flesh. It is to be taken back to the Museum just exactly as it is. I think a baby narwhal is a very rare specimen, and we all hope this one gets back in good condition.