80 ADVENTURES IN THE NORTHERN SEAS. 



tific occupations we find a great resource. As for 

 reading, it is next to impossible, for I defy any 

 body to read long sitting on a locker nine inches 

 broad ; also, the bunks are too dark, and if we try 

 to read in them we generally go to sleep. 



lhth. Wind round to the southwest, and mild. 

 Summoned on deck at 5 A.M., a large herd of wal- 

 ruses being reported from the mast-head. They 

 were a long distance off, and were not visible from 

 the deck; but, as it was dead calm, Isaac said we 

 had better go up to them in the boats for fear of 

 fog coming on again, or some other boats being 

 before us ; so we had our breakfast first, and then 

 started with both boats full-manned. We had a 

 pleasant row of four or five miles over calm water 

 quite free of ice, and were cheered for the latter 

 half of the distance by the sonorous bellowing and 

 trumpeting of a vast number of walruses. We 

 soon came in sight of a long line of low flat ice- 

 bergs crowded with sea-horses. There were at least 

 ten of these bergs so packed with the walruses that 

 in some places they lay two deep on the ice. There 

 can not have been less than 300 in sight at once ; 

 but they were very shy and restless, and, although 

 we tried every troop in succession as carefully as 

 possible, we did not succeed in getting within har- 

 pooning distance of a single walrus. Many of 

 them were asleep; but there were always some 

 moving about who gave the alarm to their sleep- 

 ing comrades by flapping them with their fore feet, 



