e of it and could see better. I saw now, too, that it was a
large animal, and that it had only been its head that I had taken for
a dog. It was not unlike a bear in its movements, but it seemed to me
remarkably dark in color. I pulled the revolver out of the holster and
rushed forward to empty all its barrels into the creature's head. When
I was just a few paces from it, and preparing to shoot, it raised its
head and I saw that it was a walrus, and that same moment it threw
itself sideways into the water. There we stood. To shoot at such a
fellow with a revolver would be of as much use as squirting water at
a goose. The great black head showed again immediately in a strip
of moonlight on the dark water. The animal took a long look at us,
disappeared for a little, appeared again nearer, bobbed up and down,
blew, lay with its head under water, shoved itself over towards us,
raised its head again. It was enough to drive one mad; if we had only
had a harpoon I could easily have stuck it into its back. Yes, if we
had had--and back to the Fram we ran as fast as our legs would carry
us to get harpoon and rifle. But the harpoon and line were stored
away, and were not to be had at once. Who could have guessed that
they would be needed here? The harpoon point had to be sharpened,
and all this took time. And for all our searching afterwards east and
west along the opening, no walrus was to be found. Goodness knows
where it had gone, as there are hardly any openings in the ice for
a long distance round. Sverdrup and I vainly fret over not having
known at once what kind of animal it was, for if we had only guessed
we should have him now. But who expects to meet a walrus on close ice
in the middle of a wild sea of a thousand fathoms depth, and that in
the heart of winter? None of us ever heard of such a thing before; it
is a perfect mystery. As I thought we might have come upon shoals or
into the neighborhood of land, I had soundings taken in the afternoon
with 130 fathoms (240 metres) of line, but no bottom was found.

"By yesterday's observations we are in 79 deg. 41' north latitude and 135 deg.
29' east longitude. That is good progress north, and it does not much
matter that we have been taken a little west. The clouds are driving
this evening before a strong south wind, so we shall likely be going
before it soon too; in the meantime there is a breeze from the south
so slight that you hardly feel it.

"The opening on our stern li