112 HUNTING IN THE ARCTIC 



around and Elting said little but looked very sick. In 

 fact my roommate took it so hard that he did not sleep 

 that night. It was a very unfortunate occurrence which 

 might have been avoided if we had carefully examined 

 the rope, for after the accident the line was found to be 

 rotten. Ever after that we took no more chances, but 

 first of all made a well-tested rope fast to the walrus's 

 head and if possible through his mouth in such a way 

 that there was little danger of losing it. There was no 

 repairing this loss of Elting's, so we hoisted aboard the 

 hide with the flippers and some blubber. 



This affair completely nullified all the cheering effect 

 of our first polar bear that morning; yet our first day 

 in the ice was at least eventful. 



The ''Abler" in her further course pushed aside ice 

 pans nearly as large as herself. Awakened at two in the 

 morning by the repeated shocks of ice cakes against the 

 schooner, I turned out and found Larsson on watch, ram- 

 ming through heavy drift ice at top speed. This seemed 

 to be a habit with him. 



''Where are we heading, Cap?" I asked. 



"Straight for Herald Island," he rephed. 



"Why not turn out to the thinner ice and see if we 

 don't make better time?" I suggested. 



He did so and soon got too far out into a heavy 

 southwest sea which drove him back to cover, as it was 

 unpleasant to see great masses of ice hurtling on all sides 

 of the boat, threatening to stave in her sides. Elting 

 and I watched from four o'clock until breakfast. Small 

 patches of dirty snow continually misled us into thinking 

 we were again upon walrus or bear, for the resemblance 

 of color was perfect. The mate got stuck in a jam for 

 several hours in a fog where we could not see three hun- 



