HABITS AND THE CHASE. 129 



weather. In the way of additional weapons, heavy rifles with 

 plenty of ammunition are considered desirable, and often prove 

 of great service when the Walruses are too wary to permit a 

 near approach, as often happens. Generally a mast and sail 

 are, or should be, also carried, though by no means always 

 needed.* 



According to the same writer, the manner of "flensing,'" or 

 taking off' and securing the skin and blubber, is as follows : 

 The huge beasts being drawn up on to an ice-floe, the skin, with 

 the blubber adhering, is then removed by dividing the skin into 

 halves t by a slit along the ventral and dorsal lines of the body. 

 It is then loaded into the boats and taken to the ships and 

 thrown into the hold in bulk. Afterward, as leisure or oppor- 

 tunity offers, the skins are drawn up, spread across an inclined 

 platform erected on deck for the purpose, and the blubber re- 

 moved. This is done by two men who act as " blubber-cutters," 

 clad in oil- skin suits, and armed with large, sharp knives hav- 

 ing curved edges. The blubber is then dexterously removed 

 from the skin, cut into slabs of twenty or thirty pounds' weight, 

 and thrown down the hatchway, where tw T o men are stationed 

 to receive it and slip it into the square bung-holes of the casks. 

 From its oiliness it soon finds its own level in the casks, which, 

 when full, are tightly closed. | 



Captain Hall describes the Esquimaux method of taking the 

 Walrus as follows : " The hunter has a peculiar spear, to which 

 is attached a long line made of Walrus hide ; this line is coiled, 

 and hung about the neck ; thus prepared, he hides himself 

 among the broken drifting ice, and awaits the moment for strik- 

 ing his game. The spear is then thrown, and the hunter at 

 once slips the coil of line off his head, fastens the end to the ice 

 by driving a spear through a loop in it, and waits till the Wal- 

 rus comes to the surface of the water, into which he has plunged 

 on feeling the stroke of the harpoon ; then the animal is quickly 

 dispatched by the use of a long lance. The recklessness and 

 cool daring of the Inuuit is forcibly shown in this operation, for 

 if he should fail to free his neck of the coil at just the right 

 moment, he would inevitably be drawn headlong beneath the 

 ice." 



* Compiled from Lament's Seasons with the Sea-horses, pp. 43-51. 

 tin the case of full-grown Walruses; brit in the case of " calves," the skin 

 is left entire. 



t Compiled from Lament's Seasons with the Sea-horses, pp. 76, 77. 

 Arctic Eesearches, etc., p. 500. 



Misc. Pub. No. 12 9 



