POLAR BEAR AT HERALD ISLAND 111 



stalk the game. From deck and rigging we watched the 

 whole affair. Both men had slipped white cotton parkas 

 over their fm-s to harmonize with the general scenery. 

 They paddled sm-ely toward their victim, freezing into 

 ice as he occasionally raised his head, and when screened 

 by the ridge of the hummock on which he was lying with 

 his tail in the water, they tied the kayaks and stalked 

 over the little hill to a range of about thirty yards. The 

 walrus was not once aware of danger and, when the 

 slender steel bullet of the .280 Ross rifle went into the 

 back of his head, simply relaxed without moving his 

 position. Then the hunters raced back to their raft, for 

 the floe to which it was fastened had begun to drift 

 apart from the other. We rounded to the scene in the 

 schooner and found a very large specimen dead on the 

 ice. 



The Pacific walrus is well known to be a greater 

 animal than the Atlantic variety, but we were really sur- 

 prised to see how monstrous this one actually appeared. 

 Unfortunately he was not measured in the haste to get 

 off with him, and this same haste was largely responsible 

 for an exasperating calamity. The head, with the scalp 

 on it, was soon cut off and Kleinschmidt called for a 

 rope. The end of an old one was tossed over the rail and 

 he made it fast to a slit in the hide. 



''Haul away!" he cried. 



"Are you sure that's secure?" asked Elting anxiously, 

 as the trophy slid over the ice. 



''Oh, sure," answered om* mentor, and up the ship's 

 side it slowly crawled. Three men were hauling. The 

 weight, about 200 pounds, was hard to raise in that way. 

 Suddenly the rope parted and down went the whole thing 

 into five hundred feet of water. Kleinschmidt stamped 



