Later Harry killed him painlessly with chloroform and he was embalmed to be taken back just as he was to the American Museum of Natural History. [[125]]
CHAPTER XII
ACROSS TO JONES SOUND
We dropped all our hunters at Karnah after a day there, during which we visited around and settled up what we owed the Eskimos for the work they had done for us. Of course all the walrus meat went to them, and also the meat from two more narwhal which had been captured while we were away, thanks to Dr. Rasmussen, who saw to it that everyone did all they could to get the specimens we wanted.
There really were three more narwhal, but one of them was a little one which Harry Raven preserved whole, embalming it. The skeletons and skulls of the others were taken. Also Kellerman made some interesting movies showing the work of landing the dead [[126]]narwhal on the beach and cutting them up. This was at night, when it was cloudy and not bright enough for pictures. So some of the men lit bright flares which Kellerman had, which lit up the beach with a queer bright light that was almost blinding.
When the narwhal were landed Kudluktoo and the others cut off great strips of the skin which they all love. These were handed around and all hands gobbled up the stuff in great shape. The way they eat this sort of thing is to put a big sliver in their mouth until it is stuffed full, and then cut off the end outside their lips with a knife. Why they don’t sometimes cut their noses or lips I don’t know. Anyway, it looked awfully funny and ought to be good in the picture.
I tried narwhal skin myself and don’t like it much. It’s sort of tough and seems to be swallowed without chewing. I think an auto tire inner tube would be about the same, only it would smell better. [[127]]
Pooadloona and another hunter we took over to Northumberland Island. That afternoon we got some more walrus but while we were fooling around taking some movies we lost two of the animals. I think this discouraged the Eskimos who couldn’t understand why the foolish white men would let good meat get away when they really had it killed, instead of trying crazy stunts for a man who looked into a machine and turned a crank. Anyway, there was one big walrus whose meat we took to Keate, the little town where we left these hunters. It was only a little way from the place where we had been wrecked.