AMONG THE WALRUS HERDS 403 



lutinguah's walrus, which had gone a long distance, 

 was overtaken and killed and after some hours' work 

 landed upon a near-by point of land. To my great 

 disappointment neither of those secured, though both 

 were very large, had good tusks. 



For nearly forty-eight hours I had been constantly 

 on the move, and the day following the hunt just 

 recorded (August first by my reckoning) I was sleep- 

 ing soundly, endeavoring to make up lost sleep, when 

 Kulutinguah called me to announce that the wind, 

 which had risen since our return, had moderated 

 again, and through my glasses he could discern large 

 numbers of walrus a short distance outside the little 

 island which lay near the entrance of our harbor. I 

 hurriedly made ready for the chase, and in a short 

 time we were in pursuit. 



Kulutinguah preceded the boat in his kayak. An 

 Eskimo in a kayak can travel very fast and he quickly 

 left us well astern. Near the island, however, we 

 found him waiting for us to overtake him, and when 

 we came up with him he told us he had seen a great 

 many walrus feeding on the south side of the island, 

 but as all appeared to have calves he did not care to 

 risk harpooning until we were at hand with the whale- 

 boat as a retreat should they attack his kayak. 



With the kayak ahead and our boat close behind 

 we moved down upon the walrus, and as we ap- 

 proached them discovered that there were two large 

 herds instead of one. The sea was literally dotted 

 with the great beasts. Kulutinguah passed very near 



several of them but did not throw his harpoon and 



19 



