HAYES' EXPEDITION (1861) 73 



never seen a boat before. Our preparations were made 

 as we approached. The walrus will always sink when 

 dead, unless held up by a harpoon-line ; and there was 

 therefore but two chances for us to secure our game — 

 either to shoot the beast dead on the raft, or to get a 

 harpoon well into him after he was wounded, and hold on 

 to him until he was killed. As to killing the animal 

 where he lay, that was not likely to happen, for the thick 

 skin destroys the force of the ball before it can reach any 

 vital part, and indeed, at a distance, actually flattens it ; 

 and the skull is so heavy that it is hard to penetrate with 

 an ordinary bullet, unless the ball happens to strike 

 through the eye. 



" To Miller, a cool and spirited fellow, who had been 

 after whales on the ' nor'-west coast,' was given the 

 harpoon, and he took his station in the bows ; while 

 Knorr, Jensen, and myself kept our places in the stern- 

 sheets, and held our rifles in readiness. Each selected his 

 animal, and we fired in concert over the heads of the oars- 

 men. As soon as the rifles were discharged, I ordered the 

 men to 'give way, 1 and the boat shot right among the 

 startled animals as they rolled off pell-mell into the sea. 

 Jensen had fired at the head of one of the bulls, and hit 

 him in the neck ; Knorr killed a young one, which was 

 pushed off in the hasty scramble and sank ; while I 

 planted a minie-bullet somewhere in the head of the other 

 bull and drew from him a most frightful bellow — 

 louder, I venture to say, than ever came from wild bull 

 of Bashan. When he rolled over into the water, which he 

 did with a splash that sent the spray flying all over us, 

 he almost touched the bows of the boat, and gave Miller 

 a good opportunity to get in his harpoon, which he did 

 in capital style. 



" The alarmed herd seemed to make straight for the 

 bottom, and the line spun out over the gunwale at a 



