THE WALRUS 157 



down to lunch, during the course of which 

 Captain Swensen saw from the crow's-nest two 

 walruses climbing on to the ice at the end of 

 Hamilton Channel. 



We had intended to leave this channel and 

 make for Markham Sound, where walruses, so 

 it was reported, congregated in great numbers. 

 However, we decided to follow the animals 

 we could see, although there were only two of 

 them, a certainty being better than a mere 

 probability. The entrance, too, of Markham 

 Sound might well be ice-bound. So we raised 

 anchor and sailed between two glaciers towards 

 the end of the channel, which was barred by bay 

 ice and encumbered with small floating bergs. 

 Some distance from the floe occupied by one 

 of the walruses we stopped the Belgica ; the 

 whaling boat was lowered, and a harpoon gun 

 placed in her bows. The Captain and myself 

 sat in the bows, Rachlew and a sailor took the 

 oars, and Recamier, whose calmness and sang- 

 froid I well knew, brought his camera and sat in 

 the stern next to the helmsman. As we neared 

 the ice-floe we saw that instead of one walrus 

 there were two a mother and its young 

 one, already well grown. Swensen decided to 

 try to harpoon the calf, because he deemed 

 it impossible to approach near enough to use 



