Big Game at Sea 



over in the mad rush of the animal that now dashed 

 away in a lateral direction. The boy was picked up 

 in a half-drowned condition, cuffed, and tossed into 

 the bottom of the boat; not a moment too soon, as 

 the line exhausted again brought up with a jerk, and 

 away went the boat in a wild race over the seas. 



u It was now merely a question of endurance, and 

 directing us all to sit in the stern so that the bow of 

 the canoe was well out of the water, the harpooner 

 sat and held the line in place. For a mile, nearly, the 

 game animal tore through the water without show- 

 ing signs of fatigue, then it began slowly to abate its 

 pace, so that the men ventured to take hold of the line 

 and haul in. Slow work it was. Every pull the 

 animal seemed to resent with fierce bursts of speed; 

 darting this way and that, leaping from the water, 

 turning over and over, trying in every way to escape 

 the terrible weapon that held it. Escape, however, 

 was impossible, and slowly the line came in, until 

 finally the animal was alongside and landed. A beau- 

 tiful creature it was, a narwhal of the largest size, 

 nearly fifteen feet long, of a dark spotted color, mak- 

 ing it a striking object as it rolled about in the water. 

 The horn of the narwhal was a spiral piece of ivory 

 eight feet in length, and was in reality a tusk or tooth 

 protruding from the left side of the upper jaw. The 

 narwhal is a whale, losing its teeth early, this tusk, 

 and sometimes two, being preserved. As far as 

 known, there is not the slightest use for the strange 



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