HABITS AND THE CHASE. 125 



been very active and self -possessed, our boat would have been 

 torn to pieces, and we either drowned or killed. A more fierce 

 attack than that which they made upon us could hardly be 

 imagined, and a more formidable looking enemy than one of 

 these huge monsters, with his immense tusks and bellowing 

 throat, would be difficult to find. Next time I try them I will 

 arm my boat's crew with lances. The rifle is a poor reliance, 

 and, but for the oars, the herd would have been on top of us at 

 any time."* 



Captain Hall, in his "Arctic Besearches," also thus makes 

 reference to a Walrus-fight in Frobisher Bay: "On their way 

 back, Mr. Lamb, in charge of the second boat, had a fight with 

 some Walrus in the following manner. Approaching a piece of 

 ice on which some of these creatures were basking, he attacked 

 one of them, whereupon all the rest immediately rushed toward 

 the boat, and vigorously set upon him and his crew. For a 

 time it seemed necessary to fly for safety ; but all hands resisted 

 the attack, and would have got off very well, but that one of 

 the Walrus herd pierced the boat's side with his tusks, and 

 made the invaders retreat to repair damages. Mr. Lamb had 

 to drag his boat upon an ice-floe near by, and stuff in oakum 

 to stop a serious leak thus caused. Finally he succeeded, 

 though with some difficulty, in getting back, and thus ended his 

 encounter with a shoal of Walrus."t 



Dr. Kane, in describing the Innuit method of attacking the 

 Walrus from the ice, says : "When wounded, he rises high out 

 of the water, plunges heavily against the ice, and strives to 

 raise himself with his fore-flippers upon its surface. As it 

 breaks under his weight, his countenance assumes a still more 

 vindictive expression, his bark changes to a roar, and the foam 

 pours from his jaws till it froths his beard. . . . He can 

 strike a fearful blow ; but prefers charging in a soldierly man- 

 ner. I do not doubt the old stories of the Spitzbergen and Che- 

 rie Island fisheries, where the Walrus put to flight the crowds 

 of European boats. Awuk [Walrus] is the lion of the Esqui- 

 maux and they always speak of him with the highest respect. 



" I have heard of oomiaks being detained for days at a time 

 at a crossing of straits and passages which he infested. Gov- 

 ernor Flaischer told me that, in 1830, a brown Walrus, which 

 according to the Esquimaux is the fiercest, after being lanced 



* The Open Polar Sea, pp. 404-411. 



tArctic Researches and Life among the Esquimaux, pp. 334, 335. 



