Arctic Adventures
Page 20
was startled by hearing a creature scratching away at theentrance of our hut. That it was a bear I had no doubt, and should theanimal succeed in breaking in, it might seize one or both of us, as,lying down with our weapons unloaded, we should be completely at itsmercy.
I roused up Ewen and advised him to reload his rifle while I did thesame, and I hoped that we should have time to shoot the intruder, beforehe could seize us. We were, however, completely in the dark, though Iexpected to get sight of our assailant directly it had torn away thefront of the hut.
"Perhaps if we shout we may drive it off," said Ewen.
I agreed with him, and we together raised our voices, but scarcely hadwe done so than they were replied to by a loud bark, while thescratching was continued with increased vehemence.
"Why, that must be a dog!" cried Ewen.
"And I know the voice," I said; "it is that of Bruno, our own SaintBernard."
I called his name, when I was answered by a peculiar bark and whine ofrecognition.
No sooner had we arrived at this conclusion than, seconding the effortsof the dog, we soon made an opening in the snow, and Bruno crept in andbegan licking our faces and uttering barks to show his delight.
"He must have scented us out in spite of the snow, and followed ushere," I exclaimed. "Can our shipmates be near?"
That such was the case we had little doubt, and we agreed that shouldBruno show a wish to conduct us, we would accompany him. Scarcely hadwe resolved on this, than Bruno ran out of the hut, and then came backpulling at our trousers and leaving no doubt as to his intentions. Wetherefore kept up alongside him as fast as we could move. He regulatedhis pace to suit ours, otherwise in his delight he would evidently havebounded away before us. At length, however, through the still fallingsnow, we caught sight of what we concluded was the land, though in theindistinct light we could not be certain that it was not a berg.
We shouted, expecting to hear a reply from our shipmates; but, instead,a voice answered which we knew to be that of an Esquimaux. Presently wefound ourselves at the village we had left. Several of our friends cameout of their huts, uttering exclamations of surprise at Bruno, anddriving back their dogs, who began furiously barking at him. He hadevidently conducted us to the nearest human habitations. Still we wereconvinced that Sandy's party could not be far off.
As verbal explanations were impossible, we tried to show by signs thatwe had lost our way, and that the dog had found us. They then, guessingthat we must be starving, brought us a large piece of walrus flesh, thegreater portion of which, as may be supposed, we afterwards bestowed onour faithful dog, who crept after us into our hut. Having eaten enoughof the meat to satisfy the cravings of hunger, we lay down and were soonfast asleep. In the morning I was awakened by hearing the loud sound ofthe rending and crashing of ice. On looking out I saw that the part ofthe ice on which we had wandered was separated from that attached to theshore, and was, with all the pieces beyond, in violent commotion. Hadwe remained on it a few hours longer, we should inevitably haveperished.
Our friends seemed highly pleased. We saw them preparing their harpoonsand lines. Some dark objects appeared on the edge of the ice, andseveral of them immediately started off, one of whom we followed,keeping, however, at some distance, so as not to interfere with hisproceedings.
The objects we had seen were walruses. Though they immediatelyafterwards slid off into the water, the Esquimaux continued his coursetowards the spot with his eyes fixed on the water. He stopped; we sawhim lift his harpoon, and immediately afterwards the head of a hugewalrus appeared above the surface. It was but for a moment. The hunterdarted his weapon with all his force, and then unwound a long line whichhe carried on his shoulder. With wonderful dexterity he played themonster as a fisherman does the salmon he has hooked. Sometimes thecreature dived, and at others came up to the surface and looked as if heintended to get on the ice and charge his enemy, but the hunterretreated, keeping his line taut.
The hunter, seeing we were watching his proceedings, made a sign to usto approach. As I did so, having my rifle in my hand, I fired, and theshot entering the creature's head its struggles ceased. The Esquimaux,highly delighted, thanked me for the assistance I had given him. It wasnot until several of his companions arrived that we were able to haulthe walrus upon the ice. Soon afterwards Ewen shot another in the samemanner, thus raising us high in the estimation of our hosts. The otherhunters were equally successful, and there was great rejoicing in thevillage at the abundance of meat which had been brought on shore.
Several kayaks were now brought out of a hut, where they had beensheltered during the winter, and, being carried over the ice, werelaunched into the open water. They were made of skins and entirelycovered over, with the exception of a small hole large enough to admit aman's legs and the lower part of his body. Each hunter was providedwith a double paddle and harpoon. To the harpoon was attached by a linea float made of a leathern bag inflated with air.
One end of the harpoon line was secured just below it, the other endbeing made fast to the head of the harpoon. About half-a-dozen huntershad taken their seats, for they had observed, what we had not, a wholeshoal of seals not far off. They immediately made chase. We eagerlywatched their proceedings. Presently the seals came to the surface,when the Esquimaux, paddling on, soon got into their midst. The harpoonbeing darted, the shaft, which was shaken out of the head, was allowedto be towed with the float after the seal.
One after the other the hunters launched their weapons, and the sealswere seen swimming away in a vain endeavour to escape. The nimblekayaks quickly overtook them, and the second harpoon seldom failed towound them mortally. Although they sank on being killed, the floatsserved to show where they had gone down. One of the most wonderfulparts of the performance was the way in which the Esquimaux hauled upthe big seals and placed their bodies across their canoes; when, singingsongs of triumph, they returned to the ice, where friends stood by totake possession of their prey.
Without even getting out of their canoes, they again darted off, and fewreturned without another seal.
When we expressed our admiration of their kayaks, our friends showed usseveral wonderful feats which they could perform in them. Two of themstarted off together, one at right angles to the other, and almost in amoment, without upsetting, the latter forced his canoe directly over it.We saw a still more extraordinary feat. A man, having secured himselftightly in his canoe with an apron fastened round his body, with a blowof his paddle upset it, and with another brought it right again; andthus he continued, turning round and round full twenty times or more, sorapidly, that we could just catch sight of his paddle in the air beforeit disappeared.
Our friends had another kind of boat which they called an "oomiak." Itwas straight-sided, flat, and square-ended. The framework was made ofwhalebone and covered over with seal-skin, almost transparent. It wasthree feet deep, about twenty-five long, and eight wide. It waspropelled by two paddles, while an old man sat with another paddle inthe stern to steer. On seeing this primitive sort of boat, the ideastruck us that by its means we might be conveyed southward. We tried byevery means in our power to induce our friends either to lend us one orto go with us.
We had already promised them our rifles, the value of which was greatlyincreased now that they had seen their power. They had also taken agreat fancy to Bruno, and they at length gave us to understand that, ifwe would make him over to them and give them a couple more rifles withpowder and shot, they would convey us as far as we wished to go.
We were sorry to have to part with Bruno, but, at the same time, we wereconvinced that he would be perfectly happy and well-fed in the realms ofsnow, where he might revel to his heart's delight.
We accordingly started the next morning with two men to paddle, and athird to steer. The boat was also fitted with a very short mast,stepped in the fore-part, and a sail composed of the intestines of thewalrus split open so as to form strips about four inches wide. Thesestrips were sewn
together, and thus made a sail of great strength andlightness. When the wind was favourable we were able to hoist it, andit drove the oomiak along at a far greater speed than I should havesupposed possible.
The people allowed us to take our rifles, having no doubt, apparently,that we would give them up at the end of the voyage. The whole tribestood ready on the ice to see us off, and vociferously uttered theirfarewells, which we returned in like manner.
The weather was remarkably fine, and, although icebergs and floesinnumerable covered the surface of the water, we had no difficulty inmaking our way between them. When one floe approached another, we withease jumped out and carried our light boat beyond the power of ourassailant. As we proceeded the floes became fewer and fewer, and wemade more rapid progress. At night we either landed on the shore or ona fixed floe, and, creeping under the oomiak, slept on our bear-skins.
We harpooned a couple of seals and shot a bear, which afforded