The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1857-02-26
.IIfEkEAR THE NORTH roIE.

WALRUS HUNTING.
i DIR. Xane's graphic sketches of Arctic life
md adventures will furnish intellectual stinisi-
10s to many cheerful firesides during the long
winter evenings, and suggest inexhaustahle
topics FOR thought and conversation No work
OF solid merit has ever received so hearty.
welcome from the American people, or Found
so many readers ia all grades of society. The
publishes have issued j In style worthy OF
its contents and snmptnous pages and elegant
plates add to the inherent fascination of the
narrative. We propose TO give our Readers
who NAV bot have access 10 It, an acqualnt-
ance with some of the adveiitlresi it records.--
MANY of them have read thrilling accounts of
the whale fisheries. aud the dangers to which
the hardy mariners are exposed in their long
voyages. But we snspect they are not so fa-
mliar with walrus hunting. The chief resource
OF the poor Esquimaux to escape starvation,
and to keep their nuts comfortable through
the long winter.
The walrus is one OF the huge monsters ly-
ing in the Arctic ocean, and unknown in the
milder climes. II grows sometimes TO the
length of eighteen or twenty feet, aud weighs
seven or eight hundred pounds. Its flesh is
good for food, supplying the place of beef in
more civilized countries and its fat is almost
the only fuel known to an Eseuimaux hut. IL
the walrus should abandon the northern waters,
the Esquimaux race in that region would soon
perish from cold and starvation. The hunt
ing of the walrus, therefore, is one Of the chief
employments of the bold natives, and as they
have no boats or RATS, and few spears or har-
poons pointed with iron, it is often attend
ed with great difficulties and personal danger.
One OF DR.. Kane's party, named Morton, joih-
ed the natives in an expedition, and gives
graphic account of the scene in one of the
volumes.
The first thing Is to find the walrus. They
started with two sledges on the ice towards
the open water. As they neared the new ice,
where the black wastes of mingled cloud and
water betokened the open sea, they would,
from time to time, remove their hoods, and
listen intently for the animals voice.
After while Myouk became convinced
from signs or sounds, or both, for they were
inappreciablc by Morton, that the walTus were
waiting for him in small space cf recently
open water that was glazed over with a few
days growth of ice; and moving gently on,
they soon heard the characteristic below of
the bull awuk. The walrus, like some of the
higher order of beings to which he has been
compared, is fond of his own music, and will
lie for hours listening to himself. His vocali-
cation is something between the mooing of a
cow and the deepest baying of mastiff very
round and full. with its barks or detached
notes repeated rather quickly, seven or nine
times in succession.
The party now formed ir single file, follow
ing in each others steps, ald guided by an
admirable knowledge of ice topography,
wound behind hummocks and ridges In SER
pentine approach toward a groop of pond-lke
discolorations, recently frozen ice ponds, but
surrounded by frmer and older Ice. sbzt
When within half mile of these, the line
broke, and each man crawied towards a sepa-
rate rool Morton, on his hands and knees,
following Myouk. In a few minutes the wall
rus were seen. They were five in number,
rising at.intervals through the ice in a body,
and breaking it up with an explosive puff that
might have been heard for miles Two large
grm-looklng males were conspicuous as the
leaders of the group"
When found, the animals must be approach
ed with as much caution as the chamois is
followed BY the Swiss mountaineers If they
discover the hunter, the sport is over. Accor-
dinghy the hunters conceal tn emselves behind
little knobs of ice, when the wairus is above
water, but the moment he goes under every
man is in rapid run. They seemto know by
instinct, not only the time he will be absent,
but the very spot at which he will re-appear
In this way, hiding and advancing by turns,
Myouk and Morton reached plate Of thin ice.
hardly strong enough to bear them, at the very
brink Of the pool, where the walrus were cur
vetting
@Myouk, till now phlegmatic, seems to wa
ken with excitement. His coil of warus-
hide, a well trimmed line of many fathoms'
length, is lying at his side. He fixes one end
OF 1t in an iron barb, and fastens this loosely
by socket upon shaft of unicorn's horn;
the other end is already looped, or as SAILOR
would say, doubled in a bght.' 1t is the
work OF moment. He has grasped the har-
pooh; the water is in motion. Putting with
pent. up respiration. the walrus is within
couple of fathoms, close before. NY )us ris-
es slowly, his right arm thrown back, the left
fiat al his side. The walrns looks about him,
shaking the water from his crest; Myuuk
throws up his left arm; and the animal rises
breast high, fixes one look before he pIunges.
1t has cost him all curiosity can cost; the
harpoon is buried under his left fipper
Though av nix is down in a moment, Myouk
is running at a desperate speed before the
scene Of his victory, paying off his coil freely
but clutching the end by its loop. He seizes
as he runs small stick of bone, rudely point
it into the ice; to this he secures bis line, press
ing it down close to the ice surface with his
aaseet.o
The game is reached and wo inded, but by
no means secured; and now comes the tug of
war, sharp struggle between the strength
and fury Of the beasts, and the sagacity and
reason Of the hunter. The beast aims to reach
and punish his enemy by superior strength,
the hunter aims to eiude danger, and weary
his huge victim till he becomes an easy prey.
The hunter at first keeps his place boldly.
while the beast dashed wildly against the icy
walls of the open hole. The line is held tight,
then suddenly relaxed, and the ice breaks,
while two walrusses rise through it not many
yards from where he stands
'sOne Of them, the male, is excited, and
seemingly terrified; the other, the female, col
lected and vengefu!. Down they go again,
after one grim survey of the field; and on the
instant Myouk has changed his position,
carrying his coil with him and fixing il anew.
He has hardly fixed it before the pair have
again risen, breaking up an area Of ten feet in
diameter, about the very spot he left. As they
sink once more he again changes his place,
and so the conflict goes on between address
and force, till the victim, nalf exhausted, re.
ceives second wound, and is played like q
trout by the anglers reel" sss,,.
II Is no light danger to encounter an angry
walrus. In the Spitzbergen fisheries he often
puts to flight crowds OF European boats. II
his tu5ks comes within striking distance OF a
boat or man, tits all over with them.
But the Esquimapx are very adroit in keep
ing out Of his reach In this case the battle
lasted four hours, during which it wore to
Morton's eyes the aspect Of an unbroken and
seemingly doubtful battle. The animal crush.
ed continually..at the hunters as they approach.
ed, tearing off great tables Of Ice with his tusks
and showing no indications of fear whatever
He al vordo ~ Ia nd