14 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



It does not take us long to fix the ice anchor in a suitable 

 cake, and with the blocks and rope we drag him head-first on to 

 the ice, and skin him. On examining his head, I find that the 

 whole of the front part has been broken into small pieces by 

 the first four shots, one tusk blown clean away, and the other 

 broken. So much for shooting a walrus in the face ! 



Of course, the walrus does not always allow the boat to 

 approach within harpooning distance. If it is very uneasy 

 (which it is more likely to be in calm weather than when there 

 is a slight breeze blowing), the beast will begin to move when 

 the boat is, say, fifty yards distant. Then is the time for a 

 steady wrist and a clear eye, for the creature must be shot, and 

 shot dead, or, no matter how badly it is wounded, it will reach 

 the water, and, dying there, sink like a stone to the bottom. 



Although the walrus does not often show fight, it is not, 

 on the whole, a rare thing for him to do so. The harpooners 

 say that three-year-old bulls are the most liable to attack a 

 boat, especially if it is allowed to overrun them when fast to a 

 harpoon line. The following incident illustrates this. 



One sunny night, towards the end of May, we were running 

 for Black Point, Spitzbergen, as the skipper did not like the 

 look of a heavy black bank of clouds which a freshening 

 breeze was blowing up out of the south-west. Suddenly, as 

 we were threading our way through some heavy old ice, we 

 found that we were among the walrus, and we determined to 

 lie aback for a few hours and take some. They were lying 

 about in twos and threes on the ice lumps, and in a good 

 mood to be stalked, so that we soon had the skins of three 

 young bulls in the bottom of the boat ; but the fourth, a 

 three-year-old bull, gave trouble. He did not like the look of 

 the boat, and a rather long shot only wounded him. After 

 diving off the ice he rose quite close to the boat, and when the 

 harpooner gave him the weapon, instead of making off he 

 immediately charged. It was hand-to-hand work then : lance 

 and axe, hakkepik and oar, thrust and slashed, struck and 

 shoved, while the white tusks gleamed again and again through 



