194 ^lY ARCTIC JOURNAL 



looking out we saw two narwhal among" the bergs, a large one 

 and a small one. We immediately pulled out for the animals. 

 As we approached, the larger of the two disappeared, but we 

 were able to get near enough to the other one for me to put a 

 bullet through its head ; then Koomenahpik drove a harpoon 

 into its back, and after a short struggle we had it in tow for the 

 camp. The next morning we found my prize high and dry 

 on the rocks, a great mottled, misshapen mass of flesh, with a 

 gleaming ivory horn, straight as an arrow, and almost as sharp 

 as a stiletto, projecting straight out from its nose. It was a 

 wonderful sight to me, w^ho never before had seen the nar- 

 whal, the fabled ancestor of the unicorn. I could not gaze at 

 it sufficiently. 



When we started off again, in the afternoon of August 14th, 

 our boat was loaded down almost to the gunwales with our 

 trophies of narwhal and reindeer, the tents, and other equip- 

 ment. The morning's promise of pleasant weather had not 

 been fulfilled. Heavy black clouds were gathering thick and 

 fast, and by the time we had reached the southern end of the 

 island it was raining steadily. As we ran out from the lee of 

 the island the full force of the now furious northeast gale struck 

 us, and we were pelted mercilessly with sheets of water. It was 

 a wild scene, with the sullen, spectral glare of the great glaciers 

 north and east of us beneath the pall of black clouds, the wind 

 howling over us as if it would pick us bodily out of the water, 

 and the black cliffs at the mouth of Academy Bay, our desti- 

 nation, mere shadows, felt rather than seen through the rain 



