THE WINTER NIGHT 377 



dark, which seemed to be coming towards us. ' There 

 comes a black dog,' I called. ' No, it is a bear,' said 

 Sverdrup, who was more to the side of it and could see 

 better. I saw now, too, that it was a large animal, and 

 that it had only been its head that I had taken for a 

 dog. It was not unlike a bear in its movements, but 

 it seemed to me remarkably dark in color. I pulled 

 the revolver out of the holster and rushed forward to 

 empty all its barrels into the creature's head. When 

 I was just a few paces from it, and preparing to shoot, it 

 raised its head and I saw that it was a walrus, and that 

 same moment it threw itself sideways into the water. 

 There we stood. To shoot at such a fellow with a re- 

 volver would be of as much use as squirting water at a 

 goose. The great black head showed again immediate- 

 ly in a strip of moonlight on the dark water. The an- 

 imal took a long look at us, disappeared for a little, 

 appeared again nearer, bobbed up and down, blew, lay 

 with its head under water, shoved itself over towards us, 

 raised its head again. It was enough to drive one mad ; 

 if we had only had a harpoon I could easily have stuck 

 it into its back. Yes, if we had had — and back to the 

 Fram we ran as fast as our legs would carry us to get 

 harpoon and rifle. But the harpoon and line were stored 

 away, and were not to be had at once. Who could 

 have guessed that they would be needed here } The 

 harpoon point had to be sharpened, and all this took 

 time. And for all our searching: afterwards east and 



