HUNTING THE WALRUS 107

the fatal weapon, and it sinks deep into the animal’s
side. Down goes the wounded awak, but the
Eskimo is already speeding with winged feet from
the scene of combat, letting his coil’ run out freely,
but clutching the final loop with a desperate grip.
As he runs, he seizes a small stick of bone roughly
pointed with iron, and by a swift, strong movement
thrusts it into the ice, twists the line around it, and
prepares for a struggle.

The wounded walrus plunges desperately, and
churns the ice-pool into foam. Meanwhile the line
is hauled tight’ at one moment and loosened the
next, for the hunter has kept his station. But the
ice crashes, and a couple of walrus rear up through
it, not many yards from where he stands. One of
them, a male, is excited, angry, partly alarmed ;
the other, a female, looks calm, but bent on revenge.
Down, after a rapid survey of the field, they go again
into the ocean depths; and immediately the har-
pooner has changed his position, carrying with him
his coiland fixing it anew. Scarcely is the manceuvre
accomplished before the pair have once more risen,

breaking up an area of ten feet in diameter about
the very spot he had left. They sink fora second
time, and a second time he changes his place. And
thus continues the battle until the exhausted beast
receives a second wound, and is finally secured.

What with bears on the land and sharks in the
water, the struggle of the seals for existence is a
keen one; but they more than held their own until
man gave his attention to them. They are now a
decreasing group. The smallest of the family is the