E X T E N S I O N WHALING Basques and Native Americans hunting whales together (M. Hacala, 2010). Archaeological evidence suggests the earliest known forms of whaling date to at least 3,000 BC, practiced by the Inuit and other peoples in the North Atlantic and North Paci c. Whale meat, blubber and the derivatives, such as oil, wax and ambergris, were looked for by whalemen for centuries, until whale-hunting without speci c rules was banned in 19861. Native Americans used to catch whales even though they had no ships but only canoes and could not go far out into the oceans. Therefore, they waited for the whales to come to them. When they found one dead on the shore, they cut it up for its meat, blubber and bone. In Europe, especially the Basque people hunted one particular species of whale the right whale. They thought this type of whale was the right type because it was a slow swimmer, it oated when killed and had great numbers of baleen, which was used for women s corsets2 and hoopskirts3, umbrella ribs and shirt collars. Americans on the northeast coast improved the natives techniques and equipment. They made stronger boats, harpoons and lances of iron and attached the rope of the harpoon to the whaling boat to make the wounded whale exhausted. 3. hoopskirt: 1. See Extension 5. 2. corset: 76