THE HARPOON 



in its flesh, but he knows, too, that the line will 

 follow, dragging the bobbing float to act as a mark ; 

 and when he has picked up his spear he paddles 

 towards the float and waits for the seal to come up 

 again. There is no great risk of the barb slipping 

 why, strong fellows like Julius and Paulus can throw 

 the harpoon with such terrific force that the barb 

 sometimes goes clean through the seal. The rest is 

 easy; the seal comes to the surface, dead, maybe, 

 or dazed and faint, and an easy target for the killing 

 dart. Then the hunter's pulses throb. " Puijesimavok" 

 (he has caught a seal), and he seizes it with a long hook 

 with notches in its handle, and lifts it by resting the 

 notches one after the other on the edge of his frail 

 kajak until he can slide the slippery carcase on to 

 the skin deck in front of him. Then he arranges the 

 harpoon and float in their places, and paddles home- 

 wards. 



The harpoon that big Julius gave me hangs upon 

 my wall, but the float is somewhere on the broad 

 Atlantic probably some prowling shark has made a 

 breakfast of it. I tried to bring it home. First 

 I put it under the cabin table. "Don't risk it 

 in the hold," said the second mate, "the rats will 

 have it." 



Under the table it stayed for a day or two, but 

 it was too much for us. Every time we sat down 

 to meals we kicked the awful thing ; its subtle odour 

 flavoured our food. Somebody would send it flying 

 across the cabin floor, and there it would lie until 

 one of us tripped over it in the dark ; it was an 

 odoriferous nuisance. Last of all I hung it up ; but 

 as we stumbled across the unsteady floor as the ship 



rolled along, we used to meet that unsavoury shape 



208 



