132 ODOB^NUS ROSMARUS ATLANTIC WALRUS. 



breaking up an area of ten feet diameter about the very spot 

 he left. As they sink once more he again changes his place. 

 And so the conflict goes on between address and force, till the 

 victim, half exhausted, receives a second wound, and is played 

 like a trout by the angler's reel." 



The method of landing the beast upon the ice is thus de- 

 scribed : " They made two pair of incisions in the neck, where 

 the hide is very thick, about six inches apart and parallel to each 

 other, so as to form a couple of bands. A line of cut hide, about 

 a quarter of an inch in diameter, was passed under one of these 

 bands and carried up on the ice to a firm stick well secured in 

 the floe, where it went through a loop, and was then taken back 

 to the animal, made to pass under the second band, and led off 

 to the Esquimaux. This formed a sort of l double purchase ',. 

 the blubber so lubricating the cord as to admit of a free move- 

 ment. By this contrivance the beast, weighing some seven 

 hundred pounds, was hauled up and butchered at leisure." * 



Eeferring again to the chase of the Walrus, Dr. Kane says 

 the manner of hunting varies considerably with the season of 

 the year. In the fall, when the pack is but partly closed, they 

 are found in numbers about the neutral region of mixed ice and 

 water, when the Esquimaux assail them in cracks and holes 

 with nalegeit and line. This fishery, as the season grows colder, 

 darker, and more tempestuous, is attended with great hazard, 

 and scarcely a year passes without a catastrophe. The spring 

 fishery begins in March. The Walrus is now taken in two ways. 

 Sometimes when he has come up by the side of an iceberg or 

 through a tide-crack to enjoy the sunshine, he lingers so long 

 that he finds his retreat cut off by the freezing-up of the open- 

 ing through which he ascended. The Esquimaux, scouring the 

 ice-floes with keen hunter-craft, then scent him out by the aid 

 of then 1 dogs and despatch him with spears. Again they are 

 found " surging in loving trios from crack to crack, sporting 

 around the berg-water or basking in the sun," when they are 

 attacked by their vigilant enemies with the spear and harpoon. 

 This mode of attack " often becomes a regular battle, the male 

 gallantly fronting the assault and charging the hunters with 

 furious bravery. Not uufrequently the entire family, mother, 

 calf, and bull, are killed in one of these combats." t 



* Arctic Exploration, vol. i, pp. 407-414, 417. t Ibid., vol. ii, pp. 131-133. 



