steerers; and give way we did indeed.

Frequently, as we pulled on, we heard the loud blasts of the narwhals,
or sea-unicorns, as they came towards the bay in shoals; and each time I
fancied we must be close upon a whale, and that the sport was about to
begin, so loud a sound did they make.

The sea-unicorn is, when full grown, from thirteen to sixteen feet long,
and has a long spiral horn or tusk growing rather on one side of its
upper jaw, of from eight to ten feet in length. The eyes are very
small, the blow-hole is directly over them, and the head is small,
blunt, and round, and the mouth cannot be opened wide. The colour, when
young, is grey, with darker spots on it, and when full grown, of a
yellowish-white. It is a very inoffensive animal. It is said to use
its horn for the purpose of breaking through the ice to breathe, and
neither to destroy its prey nor to defend itself. It swims very fast;
when struck, dives rapidly, but soon returns to the surface, and is
easily killed. We passed several shoals of them on our pull, before we
got up to the run, near a small floe.

"There she blows!" exclaimed our boat-steerer, almost in a whisper, so
great was his eagerness and fear of disturbing the fish, as a large fish
appeared close to us. We had a fine burst; the harpooner was on his
feet, and, his weapon glancing from his hand, struck the monster.

Instead, however, of diving, up he rose, clear almost from the water,
his head first, seeming, as his immense bulk appeared against the sky,
like some giant of the deep. We thought he was going to leap on to the
floe; but, suddenly plunging his head beneath the water, his tremendous
tail was lifted above us. I thought all was over. One blow from it
would have annihilated us, and dashed our boat into a thousand
fragments; but the fish, instead, dived directly down under the floe,
his tail only splashing the water over us, and we were safe.

Then arose the exciting shout of "A fall, a fall!" Other boats came
hurrying to our aid; but, alas, the line on a sudden slackened, and,
with a blank face, the harpooner began to haul it in.

The fish had shaken himself clear of the harpoon, and escaped. Mighty
must have been the force used, for the massive iron shaft was twisted
and turned as a thin piece of wire might have been bent by a turn of the
hand.

But, hurra! there are plenty more fish near; and with a will, little
disconcerted, we gave way after them. One was