OLD WHALING DAYS. 193 



considerable risk in helping them, and got very wet. One 

 boat received a blow which shook it and broke two oars. 

 We afterwards were informed that the officers of the 

 Windward had received strict orders that morning not to 

 assist anyone, yet they were the first to require assistance. 

 Had we been aware such orders had been issued we should 

 have left them to their own resources. Such selfish instruc- 

 tions were not becoming from any master. 



One evening returning on board, one of our harpooners 

 fired his harpoon into a large walrus. It was killed with 

 great difficulty. Our whale lances would not penetrate its 

 hide, and our rifles were of a common make, and when 

 fired, the bullets flattened against its thick skull. When it 

 was killed we could not haul it upon a piece of ice, which 

 was too high above the water, so we towed it to the beach 

 close by. In passing a point of land, called the Devil's 

 Point, a sudden change of current caught the boats, 

 whirling them round and forcing us to cut adrift from each 

 other, as we were in danger of being capsized. This is the 

 only place in the whole country that I am aware of which 

 shows such a tide gate. At a certain time of the tide the 

 water boils like a whirlpool and runs rapidly to the south- 

 ward. Elsewhere there is a steady south-going current close 

 inshore at the principal headlands. 



The walrus were numerous in this Sound, and we cap- 

 tured four, but could have killed many more. It is only 

 when we are returning on board that we attempt to get 

 them, as it would not do to cripple our harpoons whilst on 

 the look-out for whales. Another time I fired the harpoon at 

 one near the ship. When it rose again it was further off 

 than the line allowed, so I told another boat to fire into it, 

 thinking I had missed, yet there was a strain on the line, 

 and when we hauled it in we found the harpoon had gone 

 through a young one which had jumped in front of the 

 mother at the moment that I fired, so both were killed, but 



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