Secrets of Polar Travel

by Robert E. Peary

The Eskimo in charge of the harpoon has his line coiled beside him in the bow, with the harpoon-shaft laid across the gunwales. A few coils of the line are separated from the rest and placed a little to one side, where they can be easily and quickly grasped and held in his left hand as the harpoon is launched, thus allowing the line to play out easily. As soon as a walrus is harpooned, line, float, and drag are thrown overboard. Care should be taken to give the flying line a clear berth, for to be caught by a turn of it would mean at least a wetting and possibly more serious results.

In an attack by fifty or more of these infuriated beasts a small whale-boat is no place for a nervous person, and I have known Eskimos, accustomed for years to such encounters, when surrounded by these huge, ivory-tusked creatures, with angry, bloodshot eyes, emitting vicious roars through thick, stiff-bearded lips, and making savage attempts to get at the occupants of the boat, to lose their heads so completely as to drop their harpoons, begin to yell, and even to spit at their formidable foes. At such a time every one seizes an oar, boat-hook, or anything solid, and, as the brutes attack, hits them over the head to keep them at a respectable distance from the boat while the men at the rifles do their work. In several encounters I have had a harpooned walrus draw the line taut and, before he could be finished with a bullet, race off, with us in tow, crashing into any ice which might be in our course, knocking the startled Eskimos from the thwarts, with the rest of the herd following, snorting and charging on all sides. A walrus can with the utmost ease plunge his tusks through several inches of new ice, and it is no uncommon occurrence for one to dive and come up under the boat, ripping a hole in it, and necessitating a hasty retreat to firm ice.

BRINGING NARWHAL ASHORE

WALRUS HUNTERS AND THEIR KILL

The modus operandi of my big, systematic walrus hunts to secure the maximum amount of meat in the least time was as follows:

As many harpoon outfits as possible, fifty sometimes, complete with floats and drags, were assembled on my ship, with the best harpooners of the tribe. Then two, three, or four of my whale-boats were kept at work, each supplied with six or eight outfits. The galley was kept in commission continuously supplying hot coffee, baked beans, and pilot-bread, and one of the officers remained in the crow’s-nest (a barrel at the mast-head) with a telescope, locating the cakes of ice that had walrus on them. Sometimes when the walrus were numerous all the boats would get away at the same time in different directions. Sometimes one would start out, and then the ship would steam on and drop another and then another. Each boat kept at the walrus until it had all its harpoons and lines fast to the animals, and perhaps two or three dead with rifle-bullets on the ice. When all the lines and floats were out, the boat would pull round to each float where an animal was still alive, despatch it with a rifle, then, if the ship was near, go aboard for lunch, or, if far off, stand an oar on end whaler-fashion and wait its arrival. The ship, with the gangways in the bulwarks amidships taken out and a narrow staging rigged down the side about a foot above the water, would then steam alongside each float in turn, a man on the stage would pass the float up to the deck, and the walrus hanging dead in the water down the length of the line, would be pulled to the surface, the man on the stage with a sharp, strong knife would cut a slit in the tough hide, insert the hook of a heavy tackle and fall, the man at the steam-winch would turn on steam, and in a minute or two the huge brute would be dropped in a brown mass on deck. A young Eskimo would jump forward, cut out the harpoon, and take line, float, and drag aft, coil them carefully for use again, and the old men and women would quickly skin and cut up the animal. By the time all of one boat’s kill had been brought aboard her crew had had their lunch, and, if other walrus were in sight, went away again after them, or, if none was in sight, waited till the masthead man sighted more.

In this way forty walrus have been obtained in a night or a day’s hunt, and two hundred and fifty in two weeks’ work. On one or two memorable hunts they came in so fast that it was impossible to skin and cut them up till the hunt was over and every one had had a good sleep. At these times the deck was hidden under the huge, brown, shapeless forms, and the ship listed heavily to one side with the top-heavy load.

In hunting walrus only powerful rifles should be used, and even with them knowledge of how and where to shoot will save an enormous expenditure of powder and lead. It is utterly useless to shoot walrus in the body. For a side shot, a spot on the head as far back of the eye as the eye is back of the nose should be hit. Here the small brain has less protecting skull about it. The back of the head is also vulnerable. A frontal shot is almost an impossibility. The only chance is, when the walrus opens its mouth, to put a bullet between the tusks down the throat and smash the vertebræ at the base of the skull. This shot is most likely to occur with a number of bull walrus in the water close about the boat. On several occasions a bull walrus, rising with a rush close to the boat and opening his mouth to bellow, has been surprised by a shot of this character, and gone like a rock to the bottom. On one occasion a harpooned animal, while fast to a line and float, invariably rose to the surface facing the boat, and had the entire front of its head back to the eyes literally smashed off, tusks and all, by eight or ten shots before he was killed. It is an utter waste of powder and walrus meat to shoot these animals in the water unless they have been harpooned and are fast to a line and float. If instantly killed, they go to the bottom like rocks. If mortally wounded, they struggle to the same place. On a few occasions, in shooting a walrus in the back of the head, the blow of the bullet that killed it instantly forced its head under water, giving the air in the Lungs no chance to escape, and the animal floated with a bit of the back exposed till a float could be fastened to it. But these cases are rare, and in my later expeditions my invariable orders were never to shoot a walrus in the water unless it already had a line fast to it. Even when shot on the ice, unless it is a large floe, one is never sure of an animal until it is aboard or has a float fast to it.