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CHAPTER X
OUR ESKIMO ARTIST
Karnah is an Eskimo settlement on Whale Sound north of Thule and just inside Northumberland Island where we were wrecked. The last time we were not able to get in on account of ice. We headed for there now, to get hunters, the Whale Sound territory being fine for walrus and narwhal. Also some white whales are caught just to the north.
When we were about three miles from Karnah a kayak came alongside. A man climbed out who grinned from ear to ear when he saw Rasmussen. He proved to be the missionary at Karnah, named Olsen, an old friend of Rasmussen’s. Seeing the masts he had come [[110]]out to meet us. We were, of course, the only vessel of the year. He showed us the way in to Karnah, where there was plenty of good water for the vessel.
By the time the anchor was down there were a dozen or more men on board. Soon Rasmussen and Dad went ashore and arranged for hunters to go out after narwhal. Very soon after we got there great processions of the narwhal began to move up and down the sound in front of the village. Several times we saw a kayaker practically on top of one, ready to throw the harpoon, but something happened and he didn’t get it. Another man came in, who had got a harpoon into a narwhal, and told us his line had broken.
A narwhal seems to jump just about the same as a porpoise, only he runs larger. He is very pretty, with a mottled skin like castile soap with blotches of white and lead color. The male has a big tusk sticking out of his [[111]]head, on the left side and straight out in front. It is ivory, with a twisting spiral surface. The biggest tusk I’ve seen is about ten feet long. They have been called “Unicorns of the Sea.” The biggest narwhal we got was fifteen feet long, and I expect they run up to twenty feet.