THE JOURNEY SOUTHWARD 517 



at the first report and looked round, and at the 

 second shot the whole herd began to go into the 

 water. The mothers, however, would not leave their 

 dead young ones. One sniffed at its young one, and 

 pushed it, evidently unable to make out what was the 

 matter ; it only saw the blood spurting from its head. 

 It cried and wailed like a human beino-. At last, when 

 the herd began to plunge in, the mother pushed her 

 young one before her towards the water. I now 

 feared that I should lose my booty, and ran forward 

 to save it ; but she was too quick for me. She 

 took the young one by one fore-leg, and disappeared 

 with it like lightning into the depths. The other 

 mother did the same. I hardly knew how it had 

 all happened, and remained standing at the edge 

 looking down after them. I thought the young ones 

 must rise to the surface again, but there was nothing to 

 be seen ; they had disappeared for good. The mothers 

 must have taken them a long way. I then went towards 

 another herd, where there were also young ones, and 

 shot one of them ; but, made wiser by experience, I shot 

 the mother too. It was a touchino- sig^ht to see her bend 

 over her dead young one before she was shot, and even 

 in death she lay holding it with one fore-leg. So now 

 we had meat and blubber enough to last a long time, and 

 meat, too, that was delicious, for the side of young walrus 

 tastes like loin of mutton. To this we added a dozen 

 .dks, so our larder was now well furnished with good 



