HABITS AND THE CHASE. 12.1 



was readied. On the cake of ice to which we first caine, there 

 were perched about two dozen animals ; and these we selected 

 for the attack. They covered the raft almost completely, lying 

 huddled together, lounging in the sun or lazily rolling and 

 twisting themselves about, as if to expose some fresh part of 

 their unwieldy bodies to the warmth great, ugly, wallowing 

 sea-hogs, they were evidently enjoying themselves, and were 

 without apprehension of approaching danger. We neared them 

 slowly, with muffled oars. 



"As the distance between us and the game steadily narrowed, 

 we began to realize that we were likely to meet with rather 

 formidable antagonists. Their aspect was forbidding in the 

 extreme, and our sensations were perhaps not unlike those 

 which the young soldier experiences who hears for the first time 

 the order to charge the enemy. We should all, very possibly, 

 have been quite willing to retreat had we dared own it. Their 

 tough, nearly hairless hides, which are about an inch thick, had 

 a singularly iron-plated look about them, peculiarly suggestive 

 of defense ; while their huge tusks, which they brandished with 

 an appearance of strength that their awkwardness did not 

 diminish, looked like very formidable weapons of offense if 

 applied to a boat's planking or to the human ribs, if one should 

 happen to find himself floundering in the sea among the thick- 

 skinned brutes. To complete the hideousness of a facial expres- 

 sion which the tusks rendered formidable enough in appearance, 

 Nature had endowed them with broad flat noses, which were 

 covered all over with stiff whiskers, looking much like porcu- 

 pine quills, and extending up to the edge of a pair of gaping 

 nostrils. The use of these whiskers is as obscure as that of the 

 tusks; though it is probable that the latter may be as well 

 weapons of offense and defense as for the more useful purpose 

 of grubbing up from the bottom of the sea the mollusks which 

 constitute their principal food. There were two old bulls in the 

 herd who appeared to be dividing their time between sleeping 

 and jamming their tusks into each other's faces, although they 

 appeared to treat the matter with perfect indifference, as they 

 did not seem to make any impression on each other's thick hides. 

 As we approached, these old fellows neither of which could 

 have been less than sixteen feet long, nor smaller in girth than 

 a hogshead raised up their heads, and, after taking a leisurely 

 survey of us, seemed to think us unworthy of further notice ; 

 and, then punching each other again in the face, fell once more 



