yet we could not sharpen either of them so as to be of
much use. But, remembering the general shape of the harpoon-heads used
in whale-ships, I managed to cut one of that pattern out of walrus
ivory, and this I set on the end of the 'Dean's Delight,' and then,
making a hole in the centre of it, I fastened it to the end of one of
our long lines. And thus I had obtained all that was needed, in name at
least, for catching a seal; but only in name, as was soon proved; for
the Dean and I set out at once to try our fortunes in this new line of
adventure, and, discovering a seal-hole, we stood near it (on the
leeward side, that the seal might not scent us) until the animal
appeared, which was not for a long time, and not until we had grown very
cold. The seal had evidently been off breathing in another hole. When he
did come up, we knew it by a little puff he gave, which threw some spray
up through the little orifice in the snow-crust. Quick as thought I
plunged the 'Dean's Delight' down into the very centre of the hole, and
struck the animal; but the ivory harpoon-head that was on the end of it
only glanced off, without penetrating the skin; and the seal, no doubt
very much astonished, got off as quickly as he could, more frightened,
probably, than hurt; at least, we heard of him no more. He never came
back to the hole, for it was all frozen over next day, and so it
remained. We afterwards discovered that when a seal-hole has been once
touched, the seal will never go back to it.

"I was now more puzzled than ever to know what to do; but I did not give
up trying, determined to succeed, one way or another. Presently it
occurred to me that almost anything that was hard would answer to
sharpen the edge and point of the ivory harpoon-head, and, since I could
not get any kind of metal to make a whole harpoon-head out of, I had to
try some other plan. As good luck would have it, I now thought of the
brass buttons on my coat. Some of these I quickly tore off. Then I
hacked my knife with a sharp flint stone until I had made a saw of it,
and with this saw I cut a little groove along the tapering point of the
ivory harpoon-head; and into this groove, which was about a quarter of
an inch deep, I set the buttons, which I had squared with the knife, and
then wedged them firmly. I had now only to grind all these bits of brass
down even, and to sharpen the whole with a stone, and my work was done.
And a most tedious work it had been too. The