i9i t J ADVENTURE WITH KILLER WHALES 95 
scene. Some 6 or 7 killer whales, old and young, were 
skirting the fast floe edge ahead of the ship ; they seemed 
excited and dived rapidly, almost touching the floe. As 
we watched, they suddenly appeared astern, raising their 
snouts out of water. I had heard weird stories of these 
beasts, but had never associated serious danger with them. 
Close to the water's edge lay the wire stern rope of the ship, 
and our two Esquimaux dogs were tethered to this. I 
did not think of connecting the movements of the whales 
with this fact, and seeing them so close I shouted to 
Ponting, who was standing abreast of the ship. He seized 
his camera and ran towards the floe edge to get a close 
picture of the beasts, which had momentarily disappeared. 
The next moment the whole floe under him and the dogs 
heaved up and split into fragments. One could hear 
the * booming ' noise as the whales rose under the ice and 
struck it with their backs. Whale after whale rose under 
the ice, setting it rocking fiercely ; luckily Ponting kept 
his feet and was able to fly to security. By an extraordinary 
chance also, the splits had been made around and between 
the dogs, so that neither of them fell into the water. Then 
it was clear that the whales shared our astonishment, for 
one after another their huge hideous heads shot vertically 
into the air through the cracks which they had made. 
As they reared them to a height of 6 or 8 feet it was possible 
to see their tawny head markings, their small glistening 
eyes, and their terrible array of teeth — by far the largest 
and most terrifying in the world. There cannot be a 
doubt that they looked up to see what had happened to 
Ponting and the dogs. 
