41 8 FARTHEST NORTH 



]y, and we continued our work of skinning in peace. We 

 very quickly skinned the smaller of the walruses ; it was 

 easy to manipulate compared to those we were accus- 

 tomed to. The other, however, was a great fellow that 

 could not be easily turned over in the hollow in the snow 

 where he la)^ ; so we contented ourselves with skinning 

 one side from head to tail, and then went home again 

 with our blubber and skins. W^e now thought we should 

 have blubber enough for winter fuel, and had also abun- 

 dance of skins for covering the roof of our hut. 



The walruses still kept near us for some time. Every 

 now and then we would hear some violent blows on the 

 ice from beneath, two or three in succession, and then a 

 great head would burst up with a crash through the ice. 

 It would remain there for a time panting and puffing so 

 that it would be heard a long way off, and then vanish 

 again. On September 25th, while we were pulling our 

 roof hides out of the water at a hole near the shore, we 

 heard the same crashing in the ice a little farther out, 

 and a walrus came up and then dived again. " Look 

 there ! It won't be long before we have him in this 

 hole." The words were scarcely spoken, when our hide 

 in the water was pushed aside and a huge head, with 

 bristles and two long tusks, popped up in front of us. It 

 gazed fixedly and wickedly at us standing there, then 

 there was a tremendous splash and it was gone. 



Our hides were now so far softened in the sea that we 

 could stretch them over the roof. They were so long 



