A WALRUS HUNT 93 



higher than the others it being unusually high, for 

 the crow's-nest on the main-topmast was 102 feet 

 above the water she proved equal to the demands on 

 her, though in her case strength and warmth had to be 

 thought of before weatherliness and speed. But her 

 speed was not so poor, for when steaming and sailing 

 after leaving Cape Chelyuskin on the 10th of Sep- 

 tember she was doing her nine knots. 



The day after she had entered the Nordenskiold 

 Sea came a walrus-hunt, so graphically described by 

 Nansen that we must find room for an extract. " It 

 was," he says, " a lovely morning fine, still weather ; 

 the walruses' guffaw sounded over to us along the 

 clear ice surface. They were lying crowded together 

 on a floe a little to landward of us, blue mountains 

 glittering behind them in the sun. At last the har- 

 poons were sharpened, guns and cartridges ready, and 

 Henriksen, Juell, and I set off. There seemed to be 

 a slight breeze from the south, so we rowed to the 

 north side of the floe, to get to leeward of the animals. 

 From time to time their sentry raised his head, but 

 apparently did not see us. We advanced slowly, and 

 soon were so near that we had to row very cautiously. 

 Juell kept us going, while Henriksen was ready in the 

 bow with a harpoon, and I behind him with a gun. 

 The moment the sentry raised his head the oars 

 stopped, and we stood motionless ; when he sank it 

 again, a few more strokes brought us nearer. Body 

 to body they lay, close-packed on a small floe, old and 

 young ones mixed. Enormous masses of flesh they 

 were. Now and again one of the ladies fanned herself 

 by moving one of her flippers backwards and forwards 



