David goes to Greenland

by David Binney Putnam

We were not sure that there were any walrus in Jones Sound. But soon Doc and I saw what we supposed were three big seals on pans of ice about a mile ahead of us. We were in the lookout with glasses. And our seal turned out to be walrus, and big ones, too.

We headed right for them and Carl and Doc and Cal and Dad got in the bow with their guns. When they were pretty near they shot and hit the walrus, but they didn’t kill him. It is pretty hard to kill one, and if they have any life left they slide off the ice into the water. The poor big walrus lifted himself on his flippers and looked around to see where the noise came from and what it was all about.

Art and a Dead Walrus on an Ice Pan in Jones Sound.

In the water they seem pretty fierce and getting at them is quite a job. But on the ice they seem very stupid and sort of pitiful and lumbering, like a huge big sleepy cow. Only of course those tusks are mighty dangerous, and I believe there isn’t an animal that [[132]]can fight with a walrus, even a polar bear. But they certainly can’t hear or see very well. And when they are asleep on the ice in the sun, if the water is quiet so the ice doesn’t rock and disturb them, it’s very easy indeed to get awfully close to them.

This big walrus, although hit three times, started to get off the ice. Then Carl finished him with Dan’s heavy rifle. So we left him dead on that pan and moved over to the other pan where two more were asleep. Both of them were hit with the first shots, but both managed to get into the water. Carl drove my harpoon, from the ship, into one of them, but the other sank, although Nielsen, Rasmussen’s man with us on this part of the trip almost got his harpoon into that one. It was a shame to lose him.

We all hate to kill anything and have it wasted. As a matter of fact I thought I was going to be awfully excited about killing things, but while it’s exciting all right I don’t [[133]]think I care an awful lot about it. Getting animals for food or for museums is all right. But I don’t believe I want any trophies just to look at. It seems fairer to get the fun of seeing them alive and to let them keep on up here. From what Dad says, and Cap’n Bob and the others, there must have been a great deal more game up here some years ago than there is now, and certainly other expeditions killed an awful lot. Also of course the Eskimos, now that they have rifles, kill a lot. And after a while, I suppose, the game will be all gone just as it is in most of our own west.

We saw another walrus not far off. The Morrissey got very close to him and Art put two arrows in his neck, shooting from the bowsprit so that a picture could be taken. The arrows might have killed him, for they certainly got in a long way and caused a lot of bleeding. But that would have taken some time, so the walrus was shot. [[134]]

None of these animals was wasted. Harry Raven took the brains for the Museum and the heads were kept by members of the expedition. While our crowd, I think, have had a pretty good time and certainly plenty of excitement, they have not had much real hunting. I know that Dad had hoped that the men who volunteered and came and have done lots of work would be able to get more fun out of it. So he is glad when there is a chance for them to get something to take back with them. The meat was saved for the Eskimos at Pond’s Inlet, where we were going.