The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-08-15
A THRILLING wALRUs HUNT.
The Exciting Adventuse of Party
of Hunters in Greenland.


chapter in mis- history was about to be
opened. I'VE iced our wine there in the
SHOWS that mantle the land Of awful night
ana we toasted the SCANDINAVIAN ana
american flags with the mellow vintage
of the French suns-Whiie our cook was
a German, the captain an Engishman
and the crew hybrid mixture OIL ten ma
tionalities.
You see there was a party Of US here in
the city, wild group Of students, who
had been south east and west North
though, was ever a sealed book, and /, in
spirit Of bravadO, suggested that after
graduation we should make some ar
Eangement, and do a little Arctic eXplO-
ration on our own hook. There were only
three Of US held together, and with a lit
tie pressure through friendly influence we
were able to get passage on one OF the
hryahIe steamers, and, with tags lying,
q gOodly assortment IN the commissary,
we left Philadelphia. our voyage, though
new, was interesting only as a novelty,
ana our quiet transit 10 Greenland but
matter of time. We were landed on
shores that, though cold, proved hospita-
bic, and after hearty adieus from the
captain and crew, the steamer sailed
away, and left US at the Danish settle
ment.
Forty or fifty miles up the coast was
native village, and as We had provided
ourselves with the usual trinkets suita-
Die Tor pacihcation, We had but. little
trepidation in leaving the larger settle
ment for the smaller. We need have had
none, for as long as l live / will never
forget the time spent among the simple
minded children OF the north. We were
given hut, supplied with seal skins and
made comfortable the only thing being
that whenever DR.. Jason who was one of
the party, desired to pick his banjo, which
he insisted on bringing along, they would
crowd our nut most unCOmfortably, and
when we would finish the little music
they would bring curiously carved arrow
heads, bits of silver-ike fur and other
| treasures and lay them at our feet in a
manner that was touching. Dr.. Jason
has forgotten now that he ever had a ban
10, and to-day thinks OF naught but his
| hospital and clinics
"One day, Jason and the other, mem
bers OF the party started out for a shot
and taking the sledges and dogs made
provision for a stay of some few days. In
the village was one little squat, brown
lad to whom had taken quite a fancy
and 1t seemed as If he too. must forever
dog my footsteps. Oonlka, for that was
MS name, was the son of the head man
| Of the tribe, and was betrothed to a
maiden, fair as such madens are wont to
| be, and shortly after we arrived there
| were married, and, of course, we assisted
| in the ceremony. Jason wanted Oonilka
| to so with them, but he elected to stay,
4 so we spent the morning in cleansing and
| strengthening up the traps.
| about noon he came running into the
| hut, and from his excited motions | could
! perceive that he had big game in sight,
!
| ~ followed him to the shore. A walrus!
| as 1 lived, and we were soon in the boats.
| Making a wide detour to get behind him,
we speedily and noiselessly pulled out
/ from the strand, Oonilka with his twink
| ling eye and sharp harpoon, / with my
| gun, and steadily we approached the mas
| sive outline. Half in, half out of water,
| the huge hulk partially supported by a
/ chunk of floating berg, our friend laid mo-
| tionless, his breath rising like steam
| against the frosty air. He was bull, old,
/ and as we afterwards found out, very
! wicked.
Silently 1 reached for my heavy-bore
| and as l took 1t Oonillka cautioned me with
! a look, and we laid down out paddles, a
| current seeming to sweep us toward his
| kngship. A moment and OOnalka's har-
/ poon shot through the air with the celer-
| ity of a bullet-and merciful heaven he
| missed AS he threw the boat lurched and
! the weapon only scratched and glanced
| on. l fired instantly, so close it seemed
| as though l must strike the eye, for he
1 turned as the harpoon whizZed by, but l.
| too, must have miscalculated as he bore
down on us and with a roar made for the
| boat. OoOnilka dtVed, and / sprang out,
| too, the icy water taking my breath away
| and then | heard a crash, a rip and hor-
| r1ble scream that / will never forget. The
walrus had crushed the boat, and as the
/ poor Eskimo rose caught him with those
! terrible tusks, almost ripping him open.
| You remember that Albanian knife in
/ my library? Il was strapped to my cir
/ Gle, tnen as always, ana drew 1t with
numbed fingers and made up my mind
| that / should die fighting. AS the walrus
| enraged with pain, came furiously toward
! me, l again diYed under and as l passed
/ could feel the swish Of those teeth, but
l stabbed at him and succeeded in finding
/ the soft part OF his belly, and the hot
! blood gushed out in clouds. l came UP
| behind him, as he turned 1 did the same
I thing again, and that was enough. Oonil-
/ ka had drawn himself to the berg and as
1 was comparatively unhurt managed to
crawl on the edge and pull him up.
! Fortunately the combat had attracted
| the village and the skin boat soon pu;
out The dead walrus, floating in sea
! dyed red with its blood, was towed in and
! Oonilka and I speedily rescued. The boy
| was torn chilled and l felt sure must
! die, but after warming myself up with
little old pepper | started in to do
| what my humanity and profession taught
| me. His poor little wife stood by and
| helped me like a trained nurse as !
cleansed and purified the wound as best
| l could and then stitched it up. For a
| few days he lowered between life and
/ death, the family wanting to feed him on
! raw blubber, insisting on soups. And,
| gentlemen, he began to recover. The tribe
! was extremely grateful and for the re-
! mainder of the stay 1 was the king.
| THE oldest part of the story is about
| Jason. He was as bad then as now-and
| when he returned and found out about
/ Oonilka's cut he soundly berated me be-
| cause l would not take out the stitches
| and open the wound. We wanted to look
| at an Eszimo's liver, he said, and felt
| that in my refusal l had inflicted an IN
| precedented injury upon scientific re-
search. remained there until Oonilka
was well, and when the kryalite boat
came we left behind US two aching, CRATE
full hearts-the little Eskimo and his wife.
/ have often sent them trinkets, as they
Will forward them from Upernavik, and
they in turn have sent me many strange
and curious things Yes, one q the wa
rus tusks is in my private cabinet and as
a member of the academy they claimed
the other, where it now is"
-Munkacsy's new painting, on exhibit
ton at Budapest, is thus described: THE
picture shows the balcony of the Synhe-
orion at Jerusalem. PLATE is standing by
one of the pillars in a forcible attitude.
The vast surging crowd look up from be-
low; they are seventy-three figures, whose