“Dead Walrus on Ice Cake”
“For the last ten days we have been hunting walrus. The walrus is a large animal which lives in the water, but like the whale it cannot breathe under water. It comes to the surface and fills its lungs with air by taking deep breaths, then it closes its nose tight and goes under, where it can stay many minutes without breathing.
“Hoisting a Walrus on Board”
“They love to crawl upon the pans of ice when the sun shines, warming themselves and sleeping for hours at a time. It is then the hunters go after them. The walrus are hunted with both gun and harpoon.
“AH-NI-GHI´-TO and Billy standing on the dead Walrus”
“Cutting up Walrus on the Ice”
“Father sends out each boat with one or two white men and their rifles, and four Eskimos with harpoons and floats. They row toward the pan of ice where the walrus are asleep, coming up to them from the side where the wind blows from the walrus to the boat. If they came from the other side the walrus would smell them even in their sleep. When the boat is close enough each Eskimo throws his harpoon at a walrus, and all the walrus slide off the ice into the water. Those struck by the natives have the harpoon head fastened in their skin with a line to it. The other end of the line is fastened to a float. Now the boat follows them, and every time the walrus comes up to breathe one of the men with the rifles tries to shoot him. They are very hard to kill because the hide is so thick and tough and the fat is so thick under it. Sometimes if the walrus are full grown they get mad and make for the boat, which they try to upset with their ivory tusks. Even if they don’t upset the boat they often put their tusks right through it, and frighten the Eskimos very much; and I guess the white men are scared too, only they won’t say so. After a walrus is killed the float is left fastened to him and we come along in the ship and hoist him on board. He is not a pretty animal but very large, and the meat is the best food for the dogs. The walrus weighs more than a thousand pounds, but his ears are tiny holes in his head, so small I can just put my finger into one. But his mustache is terrible. I am glad father’s is not like it. The bristles are as big around as one of mother’s knitting needles, but only as long as my finger, and the ends are very sharp. I wonder if Mrs. Walrus kisses him sometimes. Mother said she thought not. After father gets about twenty-five walrus on board we steam alongside of some large ice floe and all the animals are put on the ice and cut up. This saves the mess on deck. The meat and skin and blubber are kept separate, and packed away for dog food in the winter when everything is frozen. When father has seventy-five walrus cut up he says, ‘We will go back to Cape Sabine, if we can, and land the meat and start all over again.’ I hope we won’t get caught in the ice if we go.”