ho at once stopped
running, 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 loop
close down to the ice with his feet, so that he could hold on when it
tightened, 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 peculiar
way for the purpose of standing a heavy strain.

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

The wounded walrus was a little flurried and very angry; the female was
not at all frightened, she was passionately furious! Both of them tore
up the ice tables with their great ivory tusks, and glared at their
enemy with an expression that there was no mistaking. The walrus is
well known to be one of the fiercest animals in the world. Woe to the
poor native if he had been caught by these monsters at that time.

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

The great lumpish-looking heads and square-cut faces of the creatures
looked frightful at this point in the fight. There was something like
human intelligence in their malicious and brutal faces, as the water
poured down their cheeks and over their bristling beards, mingled with
blood