A WALRUS HUNT 81 



prospect was satisfactory, the Roosevelt would steam 

 along to leeward, for if they smelled her smoke they 

 would wake up and we would never see them again. 



"Henson, MacMillan, and I used to take turns 

 going after these brutes. Four or five Eskimos, one 

 sailor, and a whale-boat were assigned to each of us. 

 The boats were painted white to resemble pieces of 

 ice, and the row-locks were muffled, that we might 

 steal along as noiselessly as possible. 



"As soon as we sighted a herd worthy of our lead, 

 we would sing out to our men, ' Shake her up ! ' and they 

 would all come on the jump. After a hurried though 

 careful look to see if we had four or five oars, five har- 

 poons, lines, floats, two rifles, and ammunition, we 

 would cry, ' Stand by to lower away ' ; and as the Roose- 

 velt slackened speed we would slide down the davit 

 ropes, man the oars, and go out to look for trouble 

 — which we usually found. 



"We would get as near as possible to the walruses 

 on the ice. If they were sound asleep, we could row to 

 within five yards and harpoon a couple; but generally 

 they would wake up, when we were about twenty 

 yards away, and begin to slide off into the water. 

 We would then shoot, and if they attacked us it was 

 easy to harpoon them; while if they started to leave 

 the country, it might be a Marathon race before we 

 got close enough to make the harpoons fast in their 

 hides. 



"A walrus when killed will go to the bottom like 

 a ton of lead, and our business was to get a harpoon 

 into him before that event took place. The harpoon 

 is fastened to the float by a long thong made of seal- 



