74 VAST NUMBER OF WALEUSES. 



distance by the sonorous bellomng and trum- 

 peting of a vast number of walruses. We 

 soon came in sight of a long line of low flat 

 icebergs crowded with sea-horses. There were 

 at least ten of these bergs so packed with the 

 walruses that in some places they lay two- deep 

 on the ice ! There cannot have been less than 

 300 in sight at once ; but they were very shy 

 and restless, and, although we tried every troop 

 in succession as carefully as possible, we did 

 not succeed in getting within harpooning 

 distance of a single walrus. Many of them 

 were asleep ; but there were always some 

 moving about, who gave the alarm to their 

 sleeping comrades by flapping them with their 

 fore-feet, and one troop after another managed 

 to scufiie into the sea always just a second or 

 so in time to avoid the deadly harpoon. When 

 there are so many together there is always a 

 pretty fair chance of securing some by "j aging " 

 them in the water, that is to say by perse- 

 veringly rowing after them as hard as possible, 

 and keeping on in the same direction they 

 appear to take when they dive ; if there are 

 calves in the herd they cannot go much 

 faster than the boat, if so fast ; also the calves 

 must come up to breathe much more frequently 



