d carried it to a stick made fast
in the ice, where they passed it through a loop of well-greased hide.
It was then carried back to the animal, made to pass under the second
band, and the end was hauled in by the Eskimos. This formed a sort of
double purchase, that enabled them to pull out of the hole a carcass
which double their numbers could not have hauled up.

Some idea of the bull's weight may be formed when I say that the carcass
was eighteen feet long and eleven feet in circumference at the thickest
part. There were no fewer than sixty deep lance-wounds in various parts
of its body.

When seen close at hand the walrus is a very ugly monster. It is
something like a gigantic seal, having two large flippers, or fins, near
its shoulders, and two others behind, that look like its tail. It uses
these in swimming, but can also use them on land, so as to crawl, or
rather to bounce forward in a clumsy fashion. By means of its
fore-flippers it can raise itself high out of the water, and get upon
the ice and rocks. It is fond of doing this, and is often found
sleeping in the sunshine on the ice and on rocks. It has even been
known to scramble up the side of an island to a height of a hundred
feet, and there lie basking in the sun.

Nevertheless, the water is the proper element of the walrus. All its
motions are clumsy and slow until it gets into the sea; there it is "at
home." Its upper face has a square, bluff look, and its broad muzzle
and cheeks are covered by a coarse beard of bristles, like quills. The
two white tusks point downward. In this they are unlike to those of the
elephant. The tusks of the bull killed on this occasion were thirty
inches long. The hide of the walrus is nearly an inch thick, and is
covered with close, short hair. Beneath the skin he has a thick layer
of fat, and this enables him to resist the extreme cold in the midst of
which he dwells.

The walrus is of great value to the Eskimos. But for it and the seal
these poor members of the human family could not exist at all in those
frozen regions. As it is, it costs them a severe struggle to keep the
life in their bodies. But they do not complain of what seems to us a
hard lot. They have been born to it. They know no happier condition of
life. They wish for no better home, and the All-wise Creator has fitted
them admirably, both in mind and body, to live and even to enjoy life in
a region where most other men could live only i