the walruses we quit rowing and let Murphy scull
us, while Mac and I crouched side by side in the bow, the Eskimos with
their harpoons being ready right behind us.

"When we were about twenty yards from the herd, one bull woke up, gave a
grunt, poked another, woke him, and then--bang! bang! bang! we opened
fire. Mac had a Winchester automatic rifle, and he got off five shots so
fast that before the first one left the muzzle the other four were
chasing it. He dropped a large bull, which gave a convulsive flop and
rolled into the water with a splash. I hit a couple, and with hoarse
grunts of pain and fury they all wriggled off the ice and dived out of
sight. The boat was hurried to within five yards of Mac's bull, and an
Eskimo hurled a harpoon, hit the large bull, and threw overboard the
sealskin float. At this stage of the game about forty other walruses,
that had been feeding below, came up to the surface to see what the
noise was about, spitting the clam shells out of their mouths and
snorting. The water was alive with the brutes, and many of them were so
close to us that we could hit them with the oars. A harpoon was driven
into another by a corking throw; and just then, when my magazine was
empty, things began to come our way.

"Suddenly a large bull, followed by two others, all wounded, came to the
surface twenty yards off, gave tongue to their battle-cry and charged.
The Eskimos were not pleased at the look of things. They grabbed the
oars and began to bang them on the gunwale of the boat, yelling like so
many steam sirens, hoping to scare the invaders off; but they might as
well have been crooning lullabies.

"Mac, who had never before shot anything larger than a bird, was cool,
and his automatic was going off like a pom-pom, when we cut loose on the
charging trio. Their numerous companions added to the general din; and
the reports of the rifles, the shouts and pounding of the Eskimos, with
the bellowing of the infuriated animals, sounded like Vesuvius blowing
its head off. We sank one walrus, then disabled another; but the biggest
one dived and came up with a snort right alongside of the boat, so that
he blew water in our faces. With our guns almost touching his head, we
let drive--and he began to sink. With a triumphant cheer, the Eskimos
harpooned him.

"Then we signaled to the _Roosevelt_ to come up, and as soon as the
friends and neighbors of the deceased smelled the smoke, they made for
parts unknown.