e them again.

"Henson, MacMillan, and I used to take turns going after these brutes.
Four or five Eskimos, one sailor, and a whale-boat were assigned to each
of us. The boats were painted white to resemble pieces of ice, and the
row-locks were muffled, that we might steal along as noiselessly as
possible.

"As soon as we sighted a herd worthy of our lead, we would sing out to
our men, 'Shake her up!' and they would all come on the jump. After a
hurried though careful look to see if we had four or five oars, five
harpoons, lines, floats, two rifles, and ammunition, we would cry,
'Stand by to lower away'; and as the _Roosevelt_ slackened speed we
would slide down the davit ropes, man the oars, and go out to look for
trouble--which we usually found.

"We would get as near as possible to the walruses on the ice. If they
were sound asleep, we could row to within five yards and harpoon a
couple; but generally they would wake up, when we were about twenty
yards away, and begin to slide off into the water. We would then shoot,
and if they attacked us it was easy to harpoon them; while if they
started to leave the country, it might be a Marathon race before we got
close enough to make the harpoons fast in their hides.

"A walrus when killed will go to the bottom like a ton of lead, and our
business was to get a harpoon into him before that event took place. The
harpoon is fastened to the float by a long thong made of sealskin, and
a float is made of the entire skin of a seal filled with air for
buoyancy.

"A thing we soon learned to look out for was to let this thong, which
was neatly coiled up like a lasso before it was thrown, have the right
of way and all the space it needed; for if it happened to take a turn
around one of our legs when the other end was fast to a walrus, we would
be missing that useful member, and be pulled into the water--and
possibly drowned.

"Now a crew that goes through a scrimmage with these monsters develops
teamplay of a high order in a surprisingly short time. The sailor would
steer, four Eskimos would row, and in the bow would be the best
harpooner with one of us beside him. The two men forward would enable
the men rowing to be spelled, if we had a long chase.

"I shall never forget my first mix-up with a herd. We had sighted about
ten walruses two miles away, and MacMillan and I, Dennis Murphy, a
sailor, and three Eskimos manned a whale-boat, and off we went. About
two hundred yards from