clear ice surface. They were
lying crowded together on a floe a little to landward from us, blue
mountains glittering behind them in the sun. At last the harpoons were
sharpened, guns and cartridges ready, and Henriksen, Juell, and I set
off. There seemed to be a slight breeze from the south, so we rowed
to the north side of the floe, to get to leeward of the animals. From
time to time their sentry raised his head, but apparently did not see
us. We advanced slowly, and soon we were so near that we had to row
very cautiously. Juell kept us going, while Henriksen was ready in
the bow with a harpoon, and I behind him with a gun. The moment the
sentry raised his head the oars stopped, and we stood motionless;
when he sunk it again, a few more strokes brought us nearer.

Body to body they lay close-packed on a small floe, old and young
ones mixed. Enormous masses of flesh they were! Now and again one
of the ladies fanned herself by moving one of her flappers backward
and forward over her body; then she lay quiet again on her back
or side. "Good gracious! what a lot of meat!" said Juell, who was
cook. More and more cautiously we drew near. While I sat ready with
the gun, Henriksen took a good grip of the harpoon shaft, and as
the boat touched the floe he rose, and off flew the harpoon. But it
struck too high, glanced off the tough hide, and skipped over the
backs of the animals. Now there was a pretty to do! Ten or twelve
great weird faces glared upon us at once; the colossal creatures
twisted themselves round with incredible celerity, and came waddling
with lifted heads and hollow bellowings to the edge of the ice where
we lay. It was undeniably an imposing sight; but I laid my gun to my
shoulder and fired at one of the biggest heads. The animal staggered,
and then fell head foremost into the water. Now a ball into another
head; this creature fell too, but was able to fling itself into the
sea. And now the whole herd dashed in, and we as well as they were
hidden in spray. It had all happened in a few seconds. But up they came
again immediately round the boat, the one head bigger and uglier than
the other, their young ones close beside them. They stood up in the
water, bellowed and roared till the air trembled, threw themselves
forward towards us, then rose up again, and new bellowings filled
the air. Then they rolled over and disappeared with a splash, then
bobbed up again. The water foamed and boiled for yards around--the