162 TWO DIANAS IN ALASKA 



view. Although the boat was rowed for some time in 

 circles where the animal had sunk, and a sharp look- 

 out was kept by its occupants, nothing could be seen 

 of the sunken beast. Ultimately it was a very doleful 

 pair of huntresses who returned empty-handed to the 

 ship, and each more like Niobe than Diana gave us 

 their version of the episode. 



It appeared that whilst stalking the sleeping animals 

 they had especially singled out one bull which ap- 

 peared to carry a particularly fine pair of tusks, and 

 they had both agreed to shoot first at this one, and if 

 it fell to try and bag another before they all took to the 

 water, and although finally they had despatched four 

 bullets at the animal he had managed to get away. 



We questioned them closely as to where they had 

 aimed, and they said that their fire had been directed 

 to a spot which they believed was behind the animal's 

 shoulder, but that in such a huge, ungainly shape it 

 was hard to locate at a distance where the brute's 

 heart might lie. Subsequently Macdonald told us that 

 this was absolutely an unreliable place in which to 

 shoot a walrus, and he regretted not having told us 

 sooner that the correct place to kill a walrus was by 

 placing a bullet in the back of its head, where the 

 skull was thin. But he added that not even our 

 powerful '450 cordite rifles would kill walruses if shot 

 in the forehead, where, he declared, their skulls were 

 many inches thick, and also that the vast mass of 

 blubber and fat, which constituted their bodies, con- 

 tained very few really vulnerable parts. This we 

 found subsequently to be a fact, 



