e could reckon it up, a hundred
and nineteen leagues inside the entrance of the straits at Cape
Resolution. Raed and I were below making a sort of map of the
straits, looking over the charts, etc., when Kit came running down.

"There's a sea-horse off here on the island!" said he.

"A sea-horse!" exclaimed Raed.

"A walrus!" I cried; for we had not, thus far, got sight of one of
these creatures, though we had expected to find them in numbers
throughout the straits. But, so far as our observation goes, they are
very rare there.

Taking our glasses, we ran hastily up. Wade was looking off.

"Out there where the ice is jammed in against this lower end of the
island," directed Kit.

The distance was about a mile.

"Don't you see that great black _bunch_ lying among the ice there?"
continued he. "See his white tusks!"

Bringing our keen little telescopes to bear, we soon had him _up under
our noses_,--a great, dark-hided, clumsy beast, with a hideous
countenance and white tusks; not so big as an elephant's, to be sure,
but big enough to give their possessor a very formidable appearance.

"Seems to be taking his ease there," said Wade. "Same creature that
the old writers call a _morse_, isn't it?"

"I believe so," replied Raed.

"Wonder if our proper name, _Morse_, is from that?" said I.

"Shouldn't wonder," said Kit. "Many of our best family names are from
a humbler origin than that. But we must improve this chance to hunt
that old chap: may not get another. And it won't do, nohow, to come
clean up here to Hudson Bay and not go sea-horse-hunting once."

"Right, my boy!" cried Raed. "Captain, we want to go on a walrus-hunt.
Can the schooner be brought round, and the boat manned for that
purpose?"

"Certainly, sir. 'The Curlew' is at your service, as also her boat."

"Then let me invite you to participate in the exercise," said Raed,
laughing.

"Nothing would suit me better. But as the wind is fresh, and the
schooner liable to drift, I doubt if it will be prudent for me to
leave her so long. You have my best wishes for your success, however.
I shall watch the chase with interest through my glass; and, better
still, I will see that Palmleaf has dinner ready at your
return.--Here, Weymouth and Donovan, let down the boat, and row these
youthful huntsmen to yonder ice-bound shore!"

Ah! if we had foreseen the results of that hunt, we should scarcely
have been so jocose, I fancy. Well, coming events are wisely