AN AECTIC TEAM. 77 



well-sized young bulls who are still towing 

 the heavy boat with their two dead comrades 

 attached as if she was behind a steam-tug, and 

 struggling madly to drag us under the icebergs : 

 a vigorous application of the lances -soon settles 

 the business, and we now with some difficulty 

 tow our four dead victims to the nearest flat 

 iceberg and fix the ice-anchor, by which, with 

 the powerful aid of block-and-tackle, we haul 

 them one by one on the ice and divest them of 

 their spoils. Meantime Lord David s boat is 

 carried past us at eight miles an hour in full 

 tow of two enormous bulls, with his Lordship 

 sitting in the stern like Neptune in his car, 

 but holding in his hand, instead of the trident 

 of the marine god, a much more effective 

 weapon in the shape of a four-barrelled rifle. 

 While we were engaged in cutting up these 

 walruses, there were at least fifty more surround 

 ing the iceberg, snorting and bellowing, and 

 rearing up in the water as if smelling the blood 

 of their slaughtered friends and curious to see 

 what we were doing to them now : they were 

 so close that I might have shot a dozen of 

 them, but as they would have been sure to 

 sink before the boat could get to them, I was 

 not so cruel as wantonly to take their lives. 



