Eskimo Notes Point Barrow, Alaska May 22 and nicely frozen. The ground here thaws only a foot or so. This con- dition occurs over much of Alaska, the permafrost deeper in the warmer regions, but nevertheless present even in the cultivated areas. The spring and winter whole season is just over now. This was a good year for 17 were secured by the villagers. None last year and only 2 or 3 the year before. Thus everyone has had his fill of muktuk. This I under- stand is generally the blubber, but perhaps only that near the skin for the, flippers and flukes provide the greatest delicacy in this field, and from the whole whale. The bowhead is the species taken, a large-headed mammal which was at one time a most valuable catch for its supply of baleen. With less demand for corset stays and the manufacture of cheap substitutes for genuine baleen stays the baleen busi- ness has gone on the rocks, or up here one might say the ice, and the matrices must be content to leave it to float away when the ice breaks up.