LAST DAY WITH THE SEA-HOESES. 205 



sterns towards us, but the remaining villain 

 seemed to be acting as sentry ; however, he 

 permitted us to approach to about thirty yards 

 distance, when he snorted, and began to kick 

 his sleeping companions to arouse them. I 

 had covered the sentinel s head, and had deter 

 mined that he should pay for his alertness 

 with his life, when suddenly a bull with much 

 better tusks lifted his head above the sen 

 tinel s back; so, quickly changing my aim, I 

 shot this other bull through the head, and he 

 tumbled forward on the ice, so dead that he 

 lay with his head doubled under him, and the 

 points of his tusks thrust into his stomach ; 

 the rest then escaped. We found that the 

 bull I had shot had given up the ghost in 

 that peculiar state described by the historian 

 Gibbon (in a Latin note) as having been the 

 last dying position of the prophet Mahomet. 

 To make room in the boat for his skin and 

 blubber, we threw out a proportionate quan 

 tity of the fire-wood. 



In about another hour we found a solitary 

 old bull asleep on a very small piece of ice ; 

 he lay on his side with his back to lee 

 ward, which is the very best possible position 

 for either shooting or harpooning a walrus. I 



