based on the author's own experiences as a young
fur trader in the Hudson Bay country. Ballantyne
(1825-1894) belonged to the family of famous
Edinburgh publishers that issued Scott's works.

Just prior to the incident quoted below, Annatock
had discovered a walrus frozen to death and was
engaged in chopping him up. Then appears walrus
number two, who was thoroughly alive.

Not far from the spot where this fortunate discovery
had been made, there was a large sheet of recently
formed black ice, where the main ice had been broken away
and the open water left. The sheet, although much melted
by the thaw, was still about three inches thick, and quite 5
capable of supporting a man.

While Annatock was working with his back to this ice,
he heard a tremendous crash take place behind him. Turning
hastily round, he observed that the noise was caused by
another enormous walrus, the glance of whose large round 10
eyes, and whose loud snort, showed clearly enough that he
was not frozen like his unfortunate companion. By this
time the little boy had come up with Edith and the sledge,
so Annatock ordered him to take the dogs behind a hummock
to keep them out of sight, while he selected several 15
strong harpoons and a lance from the sledge. Giving
another lance to Peetoot, he signed to Edith to sit on the
hummock while he attacked the grisly monster of the deep
single-handed.

While these preparations were being made, the walrus
dived, and while it was under water the man and the boy
ran quickly forward a short distance and then lay down
behind a lump of ice. Scarcely had they done so when the
walrus came up again with a loud snort, splashing the water 5
with its broad, heavy flippers--which seemed a sort of
compromise between legs and fins--and dashing waves
over the ice as it rolled about its large, unwieldy carcass.
It was truly a savage-looking monster as large as a small
elephant and having two tusks of a foot and a half long. 10
The face bore a horrible resemblance to that of a man.
Its crown was round and bulging, its face broad and
massive, and a thick, bristling mustache--rough as the
spines of a porcupine--covered its upper lip and depended
in a shaggy dripping mass over its mouth. After spluttering 15
about a sho