New-York tribune., 1897-08-29

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awakened ii fights, and let me tell you walrus
in the water can fight viciously. They fight
with their tusks. and an old bull or a cow can
drive tusk through small boat at one stroke
and wreck it,"
did you ever have hair-brcadth escape. Mr..
Foster?'
well. had a lively fight with a big walrus
cow once. and thought the jig was all up vim
me. 1t was in August. 1880 that was walrus
hunting in the Arctic Ocean off Point Barrow
One day started out in a 'dinky' and had big
Norwegian sculling for me. and was making
for moving ice pack gradually, as had sighted
fine pod Of walruses. A young walrus cair
happened to be in the water and came near the
boat The mother was an exceedingly large
COW, and she no sooner saw the calf coming
toward than she whistled in anger and
started for the boat with lightning-like speed
saw green streak three feet under the clear
water as the old cow made for us. and knew |
, had the fight Of my life. The Norwegian be-
came frightened and slipped and fell in one end
Of the boat and lost one of the oars. The walru5
COW struck the boat a glancing lick with her
tusks. and the little dinky' went half over,
dipped and was half full Of water | shot the
COW with my rifle twice and wounded her. and
then she dived down and came up with terrible
force and knocked hole with her tusk through
the bottom Of the boat. Quick as flash, |
jammcd my gun through the hole and could feel
the barrel touch the COW as l fired She came
up alongside the boat and then my fourth shot
killed her The Norwegian. by instinct, had
grabbed the remaining oar and was WORKING
vigorously toward an ice pack near by Inc
boat rapidly filling with water, and we
reached the ice just as it was sinking. 1t was
most miraculous escape. IL the old COW had
capsiZed the boat when she first struck it the
Norwegian and | would have never lived to tell
the story for it would have been impossible for
US to swim in the icy water.
IN PERIL ON THE ICE.
I'VE reached the ice none too soon. anyway.
The angry whistling of the dying COW, the crack
Of my rifle. and the commotion in the water
had alarmed all the walruses in the vicinity.
and big pod plunged off Of an Ice pack and
came over to what the rumpus was about.
The sight Of the dead COW set them wild. and
the water roundabout was soon a seethng mass
Of hundreds of walruses. The big bulls would
give screaming whistles in their anger. as they
dived and split the waves with their long sharp
tushes. a mans life would not have been worth
a straw if sailing in 'dinky in the midst OF
| that pod Of angry walruses. Once on the lee
were not yet safe The temperature was
40 degrees below zero, and we had TO run around
on the ice for one hour to keep from freezing
to death. The water in the boat had turned to
fee our fur clothing. Our whaling vessel was
three miles away but the lookout had seen our
narrow escape, and he sent big whaleboat.
manned by five men, to rescue u.s. The pod or
angry walruses only fingered around the ice for
a half-hour and then disappeared. SO we were
rescued with safety.
when a walrus hunter makes a landing OH
an ice pack which Is Il pod of walruses, the
rule among the whaers is that he must remain
and keep shooting as long as the waruses
stay there. The longest period that remained
on an ice pack shooting waruses was forty
| eight hours. without sleep. The temperature
was 80 degrees below zero, but the sun was
shining and no wind was blowing. The cap
| tain Of the whaling vessel sent food and coiiee
| to me by the other men, I wore big sealskn
| mitten over a buckskn glove on my right hand,
| which l used on the trigger of my gun. While
| lying behind dead walrus shooting for hours
| at time l have often felt my right hand get
| ting benumbed l would take Off the glove and
| mitten and stick my hard in the ice water. put
the glove and mitten on again quickly and then
rub the hand and start glow. Then would
rip open the body Of walrus had just killed.
| and stick my right hand inside and warm 1t by
| the animal heat that yet remained in the
| carcass. In this way prevented my hand from
being frozen.
II almost lost my life during that period OK
! forty-eight hours Of walrus shooting The Nor
| wegian who was with me during the fight with
the walrus COW saved me. Through constant
work and loss of sleep l had become exhausted
| AS raised my gun and rested the barrel on the
body Of a dead warus and was taking aim to
shoot | fell asleep. In a short time l would, OF
course. have frozen to death Luckily. the NOT
wegan came up with some cohee anu aiou'eo
| me- and saved my life.
The most powerful animal of the Arctic
| regions is the polar bear AS the lion is the
| king of beasts in equatorial AFRICA. the polar
hear is the monarch of the animal world near
| the North Pole. l have seen n polar bear with
one stroke OF its paw Kill waIrus pun that
was larger than a Texas steer Then the bear
vould pick up the big carcass and carry IL In
| It's laws lump into the sea and swim away ana
| null the carcass up onto another ice pack. cap
! tain Hooper. of the revenue cutter lnoihaS ~
| win told me that he shot poiar pear "ilch
weighed 1000 pounds when dresser. 30. you
eee 4 polar bear is powerful beast Poiar
| hears are wonderful swimmers. as l nave seen
n bear in the sea thirty miles from ice or iahd.
| They live on walrus. The polar bear rarey
| bothers \ walrus shooter unless the two happen
| 70 come together on an ice pack suddenly Ihese
! bears have plenty to eat. as rule ana II IA
generally hungry bear that deliberately goes
after man.