a long line. They also took a small sledge, which was
intended to be used in hauling home the meat if they should be
successful. Three hours' hard walking brought the party to the edge of
the solid ice, after which they travelled on the floes that were being
constantly broken by the tides, and were only joined together by ice of
a night or two old. This was little more than an inch thick, so they
had to advance with caution.

Presently the loud mooing of a bull walrus was heard. Its roar was
something between the lowing of a bull and the bark of a large dog, but
much louder, for the walrus resembles an elephant in size more than any
other animal. Soon after they came in sight of their game. Five walrus
were 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 out
of the sea is to come up from below with considerable violence and send
his head crashing through the ice.

The three men now became very wary. They crept on their hands and knees
behind the ice-hummocks until within about a hundred yards of the
brutes. Then they ascended a small hummock to take a look round and
decide on their plan of operations. While lying there, flat on their
faces, 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 was
impossible to advance nearer without being seen. This perplexed them
much, for although their bullets might hit at that distance, they would
not be able to run in quick enough to use their lances, and the harpoons
would be of no use at all.

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

"Hallo! there's a bear!" whispered Davy Butts, as a hairy object crawled
out from behind an ice-hummock about two hundred yards from the place
where 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 his
hairy garments make him look more like a bear than a man, and as the
fellow has got here before us, I suppose we must give up our claim to
the brutes."

"Time enough to talk of that when the brutes are killed," said Gregory
with a smile