118 The Walrus-Hunt. [December, 1S64. 



tlie large dogs which were to be employed in dragging the wah-iis 

 home ; several other dogs were led by the Innuits, but by far the 

 larger number were allowed to run loose, preceding or following the 

 hunters. The distance to the walrus-grounds had been for some time 

 constantly increasing as the land-floe widened, and the animals, accord- 

 ingly, shifted their feeding-grounds to the new ice or to the fissures 

 near its edge. Having crossed the half-mile belt of very rough ice 

 near the coast, and advanced about six miles, Hall came to this edge. 

 A breeze from the north was driving the floe to the southward at the 

 speed of a quick walk, and as it pressed heavily on the edge of the 

 fixed ice, the noise was so terrible that he was at times forced to draw 

 himself back several paces from the point to which he had ventured. 

 For scores of miles to the north and south, the drifting floe was grind- 

 ing its uneven face against the firm but jagged front on which he 

 stood. Mounting a high ridge of ice, he saw, as far as the eye could 

 reach seaward and up and down the Welcome, a boundless field slowly 

 moving onward toward the south, but crushing to atoms miles and 

 miles of massive ice ; now rearing up mountains on mountains, now 

 plowing up acres into high ridges. 



Ou-c-Ia, who had joined him, was unable to reach a large walrus 

 which rose in a small water-space five fathoms ofl", for the " squeezed, 

 rolling, craunching mass" was working between the floes. He gave 

 a quick signal to those on the drifting floe, and Ar-mou and Ar-too-a 

 run rapidly toward the walrus; but just ^?> Ar-mou had his harpoon 

 raised, the animal disappeared in the water. Hall and Ou-c-la then 

 directed their steps toward the loose pack which the others had already 

 gained, to reach which the sharp eye of the Innuit quickly discovered 

 the only possible crossing. A quick run, a few steps over sludge and 



