94 CAPE CHELYUSKIN 



over her body ; then she lay quiet again on her back 

 or side. More and more cautiously we drew near. 

 Whilst I sat ready with the gun, Henriksen took a 

 good grip of the harpoon shaft, and as the boat 

 touched the floe he rose, and off flew the harpoon. 

 But it struck too high, glanced off the tough hide, 

 and skipped over the backs of the animals. Now 

 there was a pretty to do ! Ten or twelve great weird 

 faces glared upon us at once ; the colossal creatures 

 twisted themselves round with incredible celerity, and 

 came waddling with lifted heads and hollow bellowings 

 to the edge of the ice where we lay. It was un- 

 deniably an imposing sight ; but I laid my gun to my 

 shoulder and fired at one of the biggest heads. The 

 animal staggered and then fell head foremost into the 

 water. Now a ball into another head ; this creature 

 fell, too, but was able to fling itself into the sea. And 

 now the whole flock dashed in, and we, as well as they, 

 were hidden in the spray. It had all happened in a 

 few seconds. But up they came again immediately 

 round the boat, the one head bigger and uglier than 

 the other their young ones close beside them. They 

 stood up in the water, bellowed and roared till the air 

 trembled, threw themselves forward towards us, then 

 rose up again, and new bellowings filled the air. 

 Then they rolled over and disappeared with a splash, 

 then bobbed up again. The water foamed and boiled 

 for yards around the ice-world that had been so still 

 before seemed in a moment to have been transformed 

 into a raging Bedlam. Any moment we might expect 

 to have a walrus tusk or two through the boat or to 

 be heaved up or capsized. Something of this kind 



