WALRUS-SHOOTING IN WHALE SOUND 



heads suddenly from where they had been sleeping on the ice 

 and immediately plunged into the sea at the sight of this 

 strange, oared apparition racing past. 



We had singled out a herd of eight sleeping walrus, which 

 were almost submerging a huge floe by their enormous weight, 

 and when within two hundred yards the rowers noiselessly 

 shipped their oars, and Henson quietly sculled the boat toward 

 the unconscious game. The huge, reddish-colored beasts re- 

 sembled some kind of enormous swine as they huddled together 

 in an inert, shapeless mass with the ice of the floe discolored 

 by their presence and a cloud of steam forming in the cold 

 air from the warmth of their bodies. At a distance of fifty 

 yards, when the tension was becoming decidedly strained, and 

 the walruses loomed up to an enormous size through the cloud 

 of vapor, a volley of rifle-shots from behind some floes to the 

 left, followed by hoarse bellowing and splashing, told us that 

 one of the other boats had reached the game. 



And now the scene changed immediately. With one Eskimo 

 poised in the bow with uplifted harpoon, and all five rowers 

 fairly churning the sea with the sweeps, the whaleboat closed 

 in on the awakening herd. The standing Eskimo plunged his 

 harpoon into the shoulder of one huge bull as it rose on its fore 

 flippers to gaze stupidly through the fog at the approaching 

 boat. Bellowing with pain, the wounded walrus rolled into 

 the sea with a terrific splash. The Eskimo threw the line and 

 drag overboard and fell backward into the bottom of the boat, 

 while, as if by magic, a second Eskimo arose in the place of 

 the first and sank his harpoon into a second walrus which was 

 disappearing into the water. At the same time an irregular 

 line of fire ran along the side of the whaleboat as the white 

 men emptied the magazines of their repeating rifles into the 

 huge targets at close range. Then the confused din of rifle-shots, 

 shouts, bellowing, and splashing suddenly terminated, and the 

 whaleboat was left rocking in the bloody wash of the sea. 



37 



