ARCTIC HUNTING 15 



the upper streaks of the boat ; for a walrus can strike down- 

 wards, upwards, and sideways, with much greater quickness 

 than one would imagine possible. After a while he drew off, 

 and, slipping a cartridge into the Express (which I had emptied 

 as soon as the struggle began), I put a bullet through his brain, 

 and he hung dead on the line. We were lucky to escape with 

 no more damage than a few holes in the boat and a couple of 

 broken oars. There were many walrus around us, both on the 

 ice and in the water, but the breeze had freshened into a gale, 

 and snow began to fall heavily, so that we were glad to get on 

 board again and run for shelter into Kraus Haven, a little inlet 

 in the mossy plain which stretches from the foot of Black Point 

 to the sea. 



Few men are likely ever to forget the first occasion on 

 which they found themselves amongst a herd of walrus in the 

 -water. Scores of fierce-looking heads — for the long tusks, 

 small bloodshot eyes, and moustache on the upper lip (every 

 bristle of which is as thick as a crow quill) give the walrus an 

 expression of ferocity — gaze, perhaps in unbroken silence, from 

 all sides upon the boat. See ! the sun glints along a hundred 

 wet backs, and they are gone. Away you row at racing speed 

 to where experience tells you they will rise again. ' Here they 

 are ! Take that old one with the long tusks first ! ' A couple 

 of quick thrusts, right and left, and away you go again, fast to 

 two old bulls that will want a lot of attention before you can 

 cut their tusks out. Indeed, unless one has served his appren- 

 ticeship, he had better not meddle with the harpoon at all. 

 The old skippers and harpooners can spin many a yarn of lost 

 crews and boats gone under the ice through a fatal moment's 

 delay in cutting free from the diving walrus. 



II. THE POLAR BEAR {Urstis maritimus) 



As a ' sporting ' animal the polar bear is, to the writer's 

 mind, somewhat overrated ; the walrus affording more exciting, 

 and in every sense better, sport than does the bear. 



