TIC 



152 HUNTERS AND HUNTING IN THE ARC 



go without sport. The incident, however, but 

 confirmed my former opinion that it is mad- 

 ness to shoot a walrus before it is harpooned. 

 The walrus calf continued to swim about us, 

 but it did not come within range. Had I 

 shot it, we would undoubtedly have lost it also, 

 so we returned to the beach and I again 

 disembarked. 



First I visited the lagoon Swensen had 

 pointed out to me, and there we found three 

 large Arctic ducks, a father, a mother, and 

 their youngster still in down. The lagoon was 

 separated from the sea by a narrow ridge of 

 large pebbles. On this I took up my position 

 and sent my companions to drive the birds 

 towards me. I shot the three, not without 

 trouble and the expenditure of many cartridges, 

 for these northern ducks die very hard indeed. 

 The fact that the duckling was not yet able to 

 fly had kept the parent birds near it, otherwise 

 I doubt whether I should have obtained them 

 at all. The old ones were very beautiful, with 

 long red necks and slate-coloured plumes. As 

 regards the duckling, they are very rarely to be 

 obtained, and this one occasioned Merite great 

 joy. To him there is no living thing as interest- 

 ing as a young chicken in down. One may well 

 ask oneself how these ducklings, in down in the 



