THE WALEUS LANCE. 37 



secures good holding in Iiis flesh beneath the 

 blubber. 



Next in the list of the boat's appurtenances 

 come four or fiye enormous lances with shafts 

 as " large as a weaver's beam," but as neither 

 I myself, nor probably my readers, have any 

 notion of what a " weaver's beam " may be 

 like, I will explain that the shaft is a white 

 pine pole, nine feet long and one and a half 

 inch thick at the handle, increasing upwards to 

 two and a half inches thick, where it goes into 

 the socket of the iron. Formidable as this 

 weapon is, the iron shank is very frequently bent 

 double, or the stout shaft snapped like a twig, 

 by the furious struggles of an impaled walrus ; 

 so, to prevent the head being lost, it is at- 

 tached to the shaft by a stout double thong of 

 raw seal-skin tied round the shank and nailed 

 to the shaft for about three feet up. The 

 reason for having the shaft so disproportion- 

 ately large is, that there may be buoyancy 

 enough to float the heavy iron spear if it 

 should happen to fall into the water, or if a 

 walrus, as often happens, should succeed in 

 wrenching it out of the operator's hands by 

 the violence of his contortions. I have once 



or twice had a boat's whole complement of 



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