132 HUNTERS AND HUNTING IN THE ARCTIC 



killed in a few hours. Most of the walruses 

 were left to rot where they had been killed, and 

 the inevitable stench which arose must have 

 tended to keep away other walruses. Nilsen, 

 an old hunter from Hammerfest, who accom- 

 panied me on my first expedition to Spitzbergen, 

 told me that he passed the season following this 

 massacre on the island, and had killed in one 

 afternoon twenty-eight bears, which had come 

 to feed on the bodies of the walruses. 



Nowadays the walrus is only found to the 

 north of Greenland or in the neighbourhood of 

 Franz Joseph Land. At least, in those two 

 places only have I met with them, although 

 throughout all my voyages a keen watch was 

 kept. During our cruise in the Kara Sea we did 

 not see one, notwithstanding the fact that there 

 must be some in this region, just as there are 

 all along the Siberian coasts. 



To find the walrus it is necessary to 

 enter the ice-fields and risk being ice-bound 

 throughout the winter. But the capture of 

 old males, like those I found north of Green- 

 land, affords sufficiently exciting and impressive 

 sport to compensate one for fatigues endured 

 and dangers run. Apropos this, the stories 

 told me by walrus hunters are not at all grossly 

 exaggerated, as many people are inclined to 



