CUSTOMS OF THE ESKIMOS. 157 



walrus, but when so hampered it is considered well 

 secured, and is finally despatched by the long keen lance. 



When, however, the attack is made in the neighbor- 

 hood of heavy ice, as it frequently is, the hunt is much 

 less likely to result successfully. Because of the floating 

 crystal, the hunter often finds it difficult to follow the 

 movements of his game, and even if successful in this 

 and in placing a harpoon or two, he is often defeated in 

 the end by the line being torn from the float, which has 

 become fast in the broken ice. Thus once freed, the 

 wounded animal usually makes good his escape. 



Occasionally these walrus contests result disastrously 

 to the hunter, for the sea-horse is by no means a passive, 

 harmless creature, submitting without resistance to the 

 attacks of its enemies. Frequently one or a number of 

 them together will make a charge upon the assailants, 

 attacking them viciously with their huge tusks, which, if 

 brought in contact with an Eskimo, are likely to make 

 a sorry-looking object of him. Of course, through long 

 experience and practice in the chase, the Eskimo hunters 

 become very expert in dodging and foiling a charge, but 

 sometimes they are caught and roughly handled by these 

 uncouth monsters of the sea. 



Upon one occasion an old hunter whom I knew, 

 named Goto, met with a bad accident while hunting 

 walruses in his kyack. A number of them charged 

 upon him suddenly, and being unable to get out of their 

 way quickly enough, his frail craft was broken and torn 

 to shreds, and his body was frightfully bruised and 

 lacerated. The poor fellow recovered, however, but only 

 after months of sore suffering. 



For a short time during the autumn season the sea- 



