Fast in the Ice: Adventures in the Polar Regions

by R. M. Ballantyne

  CHAPTER SEVEN.

  A GREAT BATTLE WITH THE WALRUS.

  It need scarcely be said that there was a jovial feast that night atsupper. The bear's tongue was cooked after all, but the impudenttongues of the party were not silenced, for they almost worried the lifeout of poor Davy for having run away from a bear.

  Soon after this event the preparations for spending the winter werecompleted; at least as far as the fitting up of the vessel wasconcerned.

  "This morning," writes Gregory, in his journal, "we finished housingover our Arctic home. The _Hope_ is very snug, lined with moss, andalmost covered with snow. A sail has been spread over the quarter-decklike an awning; it is also covered with moss and snow. This, we hope,will give much additional warmth to our house below. We all livetogether now, men and officers. It will require our united strength tofight successfully against that terrible enemy, John Frost. John isking of the Arctic regions, undoubtedly!

  "Dawkins got a cold-bath yesterday that amused the men much and did himno harm. For some time past we have been carrying moss from the islandin large bundles. Dawkins got leave to help, as he said he wassick-tired of always working among stores. He was passing close to thefire-hole with a great bundle of moss on his back, when his footslipped, and down he went. This hole is kept constantly open. It isBaker's duty night and morning to break the ice and have it ready incase of fire. The ice on the surface was therefore thin; in a momentnothing was to be seen of poor Dawkins but his bundle! Fortunately heheld tight on to it, and we hauled him out, soaked to the skin. Thethermometer stood at 35 degrees below zero, the coldest day we have hadup to this time; and in two minutes the unfortunate man's clothes werefrozen so stiff that he could scarcely walk! We had to break the ice onhis legs and arms at the joints, and even then he had to be half hoistedon board and carried below. We all dress in seal-skin and fox-skingarments now. Dawkins had on a rough coat, made of white and greyfoxes; trousers of the same; boots of seal-skin, and mittens ditto.When all this was soaked and frozen he was truly a humbling sight!

  "The undressing of him was a labour of difficulty as well as of love.However, when he was rubbed dry, and re-clothed, he was none the worse.Indeed, I am inclined to think he was much the better of his ducking.

  "To-morrow we are to make some curious experiments with boats, sledges,and kites. The captain is anxious to take our largest boat over the iceas far to the south as possible, and leave her there with a quantity ofprovisions, so that we may have her to fall back upon if any misfortuneshould befall the brig, which I earnestly pray that God may forbid.

  "Davy Butts, who is an ingenious fellow in his way, says that we cansail a boat on the ice almost as well as on the water, and that we maydrag sledges by means of kites, if we choose. The captain means toattempt a journey to the north with sledges in spring, so, if the kitesanswer, Butts will have done us good service. But I have my doubts.

  "The nights are closing in fast; very soon we shall be without the sunaltogether. But the moon is cheering us. Last night, (28th October)she swept in a complete circle round the sky _all day_ as well as allnight. She only touched the horizon, and then, instead of setting, sherose again, as if the frozen sea had frightened her.

  "_October 30th_.--Baker came in to-day and reported open water about sixmiles off, and walrus sporting in it. I shall set out to-morrow on ahunt."

  The hunt which the young doctor here wrote of came off the followingday, but it was a very different one from what any of the men hadexpected.

  Early in the morning, Baker, Davy Butts, and Gregory set off on foot,armed with a rifle and two muskets, besides a couple of harpoons, awhale-lance, and a long line. They also took a small sledge, which wasintended to be used in hauling home the meat if they should besuccessful. Three hours' hard walking brought the party to the edge ofthe solid ice, after which they travelled on the floes that were beingconstantly broken by the tides, and were only joined together by ice ofa night or two old. This was little more than an inch thick, so theyhad to advance with caution.

  Presently the loud mooing of a bull walrus was heard. Its roar wassomething between the lowing of a bull and the bark of a large dog, butmuch louder, for the walrus resembles an elephant in size more than anyother animal. Soon after they came in sight of their game. Five walruswere snorting and barking in a hole which they had broken in the ice.The way in which this huge monster opens a hole when he wants to get outof the sea is to come up from below with considerable violence and sendhis head crashing through the ice.

  The three men now became very wary. They crept on their hands and kneesbehind the ice-hummocks until within about a hundred yards of thebrutes. Then they ascended a small hummock to take a look round anddecide on their plan of operations. While lying there, flat on theirfaces, they took particular care to keep their heads well concealed,just raising them high enough to observe the position of the walrus.There was a sheet of flat ice between them and the hole, so that it wasimpossible to advance nearer without being seen. This perplexed themmuch, for although their bullets might hit at that distance, they wouldnot be able to run in quick enough to use their lances, and the harpoonswould be of no use at all.

  While thus undecided what to do, they were unexpectedly taught a lessonin walrus-hunting that surprised them not a little.

  "Hallo! there's a bear!" whispered Davy Butts, as a hairy object crawledout from behind an ice-hummock about two hundred yards from the placewhere they lay, and made toward the walrus in a sly, cat-like manner.

  "More like a seal," observed Baker.

  "A seal! why, it's a _man_!" said Gregory, in a low, excited whisper.

  "So it is, sure enough," said Baker; "it must be an Eskimo, though hishairy garments make him look more like a bear than a man, and as thefellow has got here before us, I suppose we must give up our claim tothe brutes."

  "Time enough to talk of that when the brutes are killed," said Gregorywith a smile. "But lie still, lads. We will take a lesson from thisfellow, who has been so earnestly staring at the walrus that he has notnoticed us."

  The three men lay perfectly motionless watching the native, who crept asnear to the hole as he could without being seen, and then waited for afew minutes until the creatures should dive. This they were constantlydoing; staying down a few moments at a time, and then coming up tobreathe--for the walrus cannot live without air. He is not a fish, andalthough he can stay down a long time, he _must_ come to the surfaceoccasionally to breathe. In this he resembles the seal and the whale.

  Presently, down they all went with a tremendous splash. Now was themoment! the Eskimo rose, ran at full speed for a few yards, then fellflat on his face, and lay quite still as if he had been shot dead. Thereason of this was soon apparent. He understood the habits of thewalrus, and knew that they would rise again. This they did almost themoment after, and began their snorting, bellowing, and rolling again.Once more they dived. Up got the Eskimo, ran a few yards furtherforward, and then fell flat down as before. In this way he got near tothe hole without being seen.

  The watchers observed that he carried a harpoon and a coil of thickline.

  The next time the walrus dived he ran to the edge of the hole, but now,instead of falling down, he stood quite still with the harpoon raisedabove his head ready to be thrown. In a few moments the monstersreappeared. Two rose close at the edge of the hole; one was a male, theother a female. They were frightfully ugly to look at. Shaking thewater from his head and shoulders, the bull at once caught sight of theman who had thus suddenly appeared. At that instant the Eskimo threw uphis left arm. This action, instead of frightening the brutes away,caused them to raise themselves high out of the water, in order to havea good look at the strange creature who had thus dared to disturb themin their watery home. This was just what the native wanted. It gavehim a chance of driving the harpoon under the flipper of the male. Theinstant this was done he caught up the end of his coil and ran quicklyback to the full length of the line.<
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  The battle that now begun was perhaps one of the fiercest that was everfought in the Arctic regions. The walrus lashed the water furiously fora second or two and dived. This checked the native, who at once stoppedrunning, drove the sharp point of a little piece of wood into the ice,and put the loop at the end of his line over it. He pressed the loopclose down to the ice with his feet, so that he could hold on when ittightened, which it did with great force. But the line was a stout one.It had been cut from the hide of a walrus, and prepared in a peculiarway for the purpose of standing a heavy strain.

  The Eskimo now played the monster as an angler plays a trout. At onemoment he held on, the next he eased off. The line was sometimes like abar of iron, then it was slackened off as the animal rose and dartedabout. After this had happened once or twice the bull came to thesurface, blowing tremendously, and began to bark and roar in great fury.The female came up at the same time. She evidently meant to stick byher partner and share his danger. The others had dived and made off atthe first sign of war.

  The wounded walrus was a little flurried and very angry; the female wasnot at all frightened, she was passionately furious! Both of them toreup the ice tables with their great ivory tusks, and glared at theirenemy with an expression that there was no mistaking. The walrus iswell known to be one of the fiercest animals in the world. Woe to thepoor native if he had been caught by these monsters at that time.

  After some minutes spent in uselessly smashing the ice and trying to getat the native, they both dived. Now came into play the Eskimo'sknowledge of the animal's habits and his skill in this curious kind ofwarfare. Before diving they looked steadily at the man for a second,and then swam under the ice straight for the spot where he stood. TheEskimo of course could not see this, but he knew it from pastexperience. He therefore changed his position instantly; ran a fewyards to one side, and planted his stick and loop again. This hadhardly been done when the ice burst up with a loud crash; a hole of morethan fifteen feet wide was made on the exact spot which the man hadquitted, and the walrus appeared with a puff like that of asteam-engine, and a roar that would have done credit to a lion.

  The great lumpish-looking heads and square-cut faces of the creatureslooked frightful at this point in the fight. There was something likehuman intelligence in their malicious and brutal faces, as the waterpoured down their cheeks and over their bristling beards, mingled withblood and foam.

  At this moment there was a shout close at hand, and two other Eskimosran out from behind the ice-hummocks and joined their comrade. Theywere armed with long lances, the handles of which were made of bone, andthe points of beautiful white ivory tipped with steel. It wasafterwards discovered that these natives obtained small pieces of ironand steel from the Eskimos further south, who were in the habit oftrading at the settlements on the coast of Greenland.

  The strangers at once ran to the edge of the pool and gave the bullwalrus two deep wounds with their lances. They also wounded the female.This seemed to render them more furious than ever. They dived again.The first Eskimo again shifted his position, and the others ran back ashort distance. They were not a moment too soon in these changes, forthe ice was again burst upward at the spot they had just quitted, andthe enraged beasts once more came bellowing to the surface and ventedtheir fury on the ice.

  It may seem almost incredible to the reader, _but it is a fact_, thatthis battle lasted fully four hours. At the end of the third hour itseemed to the sailors who were watching it, that the result was stilldoubtful, for the Eskimos were evidently becoming tired, while themonsters of the Polar seas were still furious.

  "I think we might help them with a butlet," whispered Baker. "It mightfrighten them, perhaps, but it would save them a good deal of trouble."

  "Wait a little longer," replied Gregory. "I have it in my mind toastonish them. You see they have wounded the female very badly, butwhen the male dies, which he cannot now be long of doing, she will diveand make off, and so they'll lose her, for they don't seem to haveanother harpoon and line."

  "Perhaps they have one behind the hummocks," suggested Davy Butts, whoseteeth were chattering in his head with cold.

  "If they had they would have used it long ago," said Gregory. "At anyrate I mean to carry out my plan--which is this. When the bull is aboutdead I will fire at the female and try to hit her in a deadly part, soas to kill her at once. Then, Sam, you will run out with our harpoonand dart into her to prevent her sinking, or diving if she should not bekilled. And you, Davy, will follow me and be ready with a musket."

  This plan had just been settled when the bull walrus began to show signsof approaching death. Gregory therefore took a deliberate aim with therifle and fired. The result was startling! The female walrus began toroll and lash about furiously, smashing the ice and covering the seaaround with bloody foam. At first the Eskimos stood motionless--rootedto the spot, as if they had been thunderstruck. But when they saw SamBaker dart from behind the hummock, flourishing his harpoon, followed byGregory and Butts, their courage deserted them; they turned in terrorand fled.

  On getting behind the hummocks, however, they halted and peeped over theledges of ice to see what the seamen did.

  Sam Baker, being an old whaleman, darted his harpoon cleverly, and heldfast the struggling animal. At the same time Davy Butts seized the endof the line which the natives had thrown down in terror, and held on tothe bull. It was almost dead, and quite unable to show any more fight.Seeing that all was right, Gregory now laid down his rifle and advancedslowly to the hummock, behind which the Eskimos had taken refuge.

  He knew, from the reports of previous travellers, that holding up botharms is a sign of peace with the Eskimos. He therefore stopped whenwithin a short distance of the hummocks and held up his arms. Thesignal was understood at once. The natives leaped upon the top of thehummock and held up their arms in reply. Again Gregory tossed up his,and made signs to them to draw near. This they did without hesitation,and the doctor shook them by the hand and patted their hairy shoulders.They were all of them stout, well-made fellows, about five feet seven oreight inches high, and very broad across the shoulders. They were fat,too, and oily-faced, jolly-looking men. They smiled and talked to eachother for a few moments and then spoke to Gregory, but when he shook hishead, as much as to say, "I don't understand you," they burst into aloud laugh. Then they suddenly became grave, and ran at full speedtoward the hole where the walrus floated.

  Davy Butts made the usual sign of friendship and handed them the end oftheir line, which they seized, and set about securing their prizewithout taking any farther notice of their new friends.

  The manner in which these wild yet good-natured fellows hauled theenormous carcass out of the water was simple and ingenious. They madefour cuts in the neck, about two inches apart from each other, andraised the skin between these cuts, thus making two bands. Through oneof these bands they passed a line, and carried it to a stick made fastin the ice, where they passed it through a loop of well-greased hide.It was then carried back to the animal, made to pass under the secondband, and the end was hauled in by the Eskimos. This formed a sort ofdouble purchase, that enabled them to pull out of the hole a carcasswhich double their numbers could not have hauled up.

  Some idea of the bull's weight may be formed when I say that the carcasswas eighteen feet long and eleven feet in circumference at the thickestpart. There were no fewer than sixty deep lance-wounds in various partsof its body.

  When seen close at hand the walrus is a very ugly monster. It issomething like a gigantic seal, having two large flippers, or fins, nearits shoulders, and two others behind, that look like its tail. It usesthese in swimming, but can also use them on land, so as to crawl, orrather to bounce forward in a clumsy fashion. By means of itsfore-flippers it can raise itself high out of the water, and get uponthe ice and rocks. It is fond of doing this, and is often foundsleeping in the sunshine on the ice and on rocks. It has even beenknown to scramble up the side of a
n island to a height of a hundredfeet, and there lie basking in the sun.

  Nevertheless, the water is the proper element of the walrus. All itsmotions are clumsy and slow until it gets into the sea; there it is "athome." Its upper face has a square, bluff look, and its broad muzzleand cheeks are covered by a coarse beard of bristles, like quills. Thetwo white tusks point downward. In this they are unlike to those of theelephant. The tusks of the bull killed on this occasion were thirtyinches long. The hide of the walrus is nearly an inch thick, and iscovered with close, short hair. Beneath the skin he has a thick layerof fat, and this enables him to resist the extreme cold in the midst ofwhich he dwells.

  The walrus is of great value to the Eskimos. But for it and the sealthese poor members of the human family could not exist at all in thosefrozen regions. As it is, it costs them a severe struggle to keep thelife in their bodies. But they do not complain of what seems to us ahard lot. They have been born to it. They know no happier condition oflife. They wish for no better home, and the All-wise Creator has fittedthem admirably, both in mind and body, to live and even to enjoy life ina region where most other men could live only in great discomfort, ifthey could exist at all.

  The Eskimos cut the walrus' thick hide into long lines with which theyhunt--as we have seen. They do not cut these lines in strips and jointhem in many places; but, beginning at one end of the skin, they cutround and round without break to the centre, and thus secure a line ofmany fathoms in length.

  It is truly said that "necessity is the mother of invention." Thesenatives have no wood. Not a single tree grows in the whole land ofwhich I am writing. There are plenty of plants, grasses, mosses, andbeautiful flowers in summer--growing, too, close beside ice-fields thatremain unmelted all the year round. But there is not a tree largeenough to make a harpoon of. Consequently the Eskimos are obliged tomake sledges of bones; and as the bones and tusks of the walrus are notbig enough for this purpose, they tie and piece them together in aremarkably neat and ingenious manner.

  Sometimes, indeed, they find pieces of drift-wood in the sea. Wrecks ofwhale-ships, too, are occasionally found by the natives in the south ofGreenland. A few pieces of the precious wood obtained in this way areexchanged from one tribe to another, and so find their way north. Butthe further north we go the fewer pieces of this kind of wood do wefind; and in the far north, where our adventurous voyagers were nowice-bound, the Eskimos have very little wood, indeed.

  Food is the chief object which the Eskimo has in view when he goes outto do battle with the walrus. Its flesh is somewhat coarse, no doubt,but it is excellent, nourishing food notwithstanding, and although awell-fed Englishman might turn up his nose at it, many starvingEnglishmen have smacked their lips over walrus-beef in days gone by--aye, and have eaten it raw, too, with much delight!

  Let not my reader doubt the truth of this. Well-known and truth-lovingmen have dwelt for a time in those regions, and some of these have saidthat they actually came to _prefer_ the walrus flesh raw, because it wasmore strengthening, and fitted them better for undertaking long andtrying journeys in extremely cold weather. One of the most gallant menwho ever went to the Polar seas, (Dr Kane, of the American navy), tellsus, in his delightful book, "Arctic Explorations", that he frequentlyate raw flesh and liked it, and that the Eskimos often eat it raw. Infact, they are not particular. They will eat it cooked or raw--just ashappens to be most convenient for them.

  When the animals, whose killing I have described, were secured, theEskimos proceeded to skin and cut them up. The sailors, of course,assisted, and learned a lesson. While this was going on one of theirnumber went away for a short time, and soon returned with a sledge drawnby about a dozen dogs. This they loaded with the meat and hide of thebull, intending evidently to leave the cow to their new friends, asbeing their property. But Gregory thought they were entitled to a shareof it, so, after loading his sledge with a considerable portion of themeat, he gave them the remainder along with the hide.

  This pleased them mightily, and caused them to talk much, though tolittle purpose. However, Gregory made good use of the language ofsigns. He also delighted them with the gift of a brass ring, an oldknife, and a broken pencil-case, and made them understand that his abodewas not far distant, by drawing the figure of a walrus in a hole in thesnow, and then a thing like a bee-hive at some distance from it,pointing northward at the same time. He struck a harpoon into theoutline of the walrus, to show that it was the animal that had just beenkilled, and then went and lay down in the picture of the bee-hive, toshow that he dwelt there.

  The natives understood this quite well. They immediately drew anotherbee-hive, pointed to the south and to the sun, and held up five fingers.From this it was understood that their village was five days distantfrom the spot where they then were.

  He next endeavored to purchase three of their dogs, but they objected tothis, and refused to accept of three knives as a price for them. Theywere tempted, however, by the offer of a whale harpoon and a hemp line,and at last agreed to let him have three of their best dogs. This theyoung doctor considered a piece of great good fortune, and being afraidthat they would repent, he prepared to leave the place at once. Thedogs were fastened by lines to the sledge of their new masters. A whipwas made out of a strip of walrus hide, a bone served for a handle, andaway they went for the brig at a rattling pace, after bidding thenatives farewell, and making them understand that they hoped to meetagain in the course of the winter.

  Thus happily ended their first meeting with the Eskimos. It may well bebelieved that there were both astonishment and satisfaction on board the_Hope_ that night, when the hunting party returned, much sooner than hadbeen expected, with the whip cracking, the men cheering, the dogshowling, and the sledge well laden with fresh meat.