THE WALRUS HUNT
By Robert M. Ballantyne
The following episode is from Ungava: A Tale of Eskimo Land, a "classic" of the fifties and sixties. Ungava is full of thrilling adventure, based on the author's own experiences as a young fur trader in the Hudson Bay country. Ballantyne (1825-1894) belonged to the family of famous Edinburgh publishers that issued Scott's works.
Just prior to the incident quoted below, Annatock had discovered a walrus frozen to death and was engaged in chopping him up. Then appears walrus number two, who was thoroughly alive.
Not far from the spot where this fortunate discovery
had been made, there was a large sheet of recently
formed black ice, where the main ice had been broken away
and the open water left. The sheet, although much melted
by the thaw, was still about three inches thick, and quite5
capable of supporting a man.
While Annatock was working with his back to this ice,
he heard a tremendous crash take place behind him. Turning
hastily round, he observed that the noise was caused by
another enormous walrus, the glance of whose large round 10
eyes, and whose loud snort, showed clearly enough that he
was not frozen like his unfortunate companion. By this
time the little boy had come up with Edith and the sledge,
so Annatock ordered him to take the dogs behind a hummock
to keep them out of sight, while he selected several 15
strong harpoons and a lance from the sledge. Giving
another lance to Peetoot, he signed to Edith to sit on the
hummock while he attacked the grisly monster of the deep
single-handed.
While these preparations were being made, the walrus
dived, and while it was under water the man and the boy
ran quickly forward a short distance and then lay down
behind a lump of ice. Scarcely had they done so when the
walrus came up again with a loud snort, splashing the water 5
with its broad, heavy flippers—which seemed a sort of
compromise between legs and fins—and dashing waves
over the ice as it rolled about its large, unwieldy carcass.
It was truly a savage-looking monster as large as a small
elephant and having two tusks of a foot and a half long. 10
The face bore a horrible resemblance to that of a man.
Its crown was round and bulging, its face broad and
massive, and a thick, bristling mustache—rough as the
spines of a porcupine—covered its upper lip and depended
in a shaggy dripping mass over its mouth. After spluttering 15
about a short time, it dived again.
Now was Annatock's time. Seizing a harpoon and a
coil of line, he muttered a few words to the boy, sprang up,
and running out upon the smooth ice, stood by the edge
of the open water. He had not waited here more than a 20
few seconds when the black waters were cleft by the blacker
head of the monster, as it once more ascended to renew its
elephantine gambols in the pool.
As it rose the Eskimo threw up his arm and poised the
harpoon. For one instant the surprised animal raised 25
itself breast-high out of the water and directed a stare of
intense astonishment at the man. That moment was fatal.
Annatock buried the harpoon deep under its left flipper.
With a fierce bellow the brute dashed itself against the ice,
endeavoring in its fury to reach its assailant; but the ice 30
gave way under its enormous weight, while Annatock ran
back as far as the harpoon line would permit him.
The walrus, seeing that it could not reach its enemy in
this way, seemed now to be actually endowed with reason.
It took a long gaze at Annatock, and then dived. But the
Eskimo was prepared for this. He changed his position
hastily and played his line the meanwhile, fixing the point 5
of his lance into the ice in order to give him a more effective
hold. Scarcely had he done so when the spot he had just
left was smashed up, and the head of the walrus appeared,
grinning, and bellowing as if in disappointment.