2 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



thinned by persistent — and often wasteful — hunting, first by 

 the English and Dutch in the early part of the seventeenth 

 century, then by the Russians, and at the present day by 

 the Norwegians, yet enough may still be killed in a season's 

 hunting to satisfy most sportsmen. The fact that the expedi- 

 tions after walrus and polar bear which are made to these 

 waters are often partially, or wholly, unsuccessful is due not to 

 the scarcity of game but to the manner in which it is sought. 

 The sportsman usually sails in a yacht — a vessel totally unfit 

 for the work before her — and at Tromso or Hammerfest picks 

 up an ice pilot, who is also supposed to show where sport is 

 to be obtained, at a season of the year when all the best men 

 are engaged to, or have already sailed with, the professional 

 walrus hunters. The consequences are that the voyage is 

 confined to the open, and therefore easily navigated, waters of 

 the western coast of Spitzbergen, or else that if good hunting 

 grounds are visited much of the game is not seen ; for no 

 matter how keen a look-out a man may keep, he is sure to 

 pass over game if he is not used to hunting, and does not 

 know exactly what to look for and where to look for it. 



The best way, therefore, in the writer's opinion, is for the 

 sportsman to hire one of the small vessels engaged in the 

 trade, sailing either from Hammerfest or Tromso (preferably 

 from the latter port). He could hire a walrus sloop of about 

 forty tons burden for the season, completely fitted out with all 

 the necessary gear and boats, and a crew of nine men (seven 

 before the mast) for about 450/. This amount would cover 

 everything except tinned soups, meat, &c., for his own con- 

 sumption ; and the expenditure is not all dead loss, for if he 

 allows one boat's crew to regularly hunt seal, whilst he devotes 

 himself principally to bear and walrus, he will probably realise 

 a sum by the sale of skins and blubber, at the conclusion of 

 the voyage, which will meet the greater portion, if not the 

 whole, of the amount paid for the hire of the vessel. There is 

 no difiiculty in disposing of the ' catch.' If, however, a sports- 

 man decides to go in his own yacht, with an English crew, he 



