Page:Across the sub-Arctics of Canada (1897).djvu/174

 *horse is hunted without the assistance of the kyack. The new ice being thin, the walruses break up through it at any place, and sport about in the water-holes which they make. Then the hunters—for several of them usually go together—march out upon the ice and attack them from the edge of the water-holes. This method of hunting is, however, rather dangerous, as the animals have an ugly habit of noting the position of their assailants, then disappearing below the water, and in a moment presenting themselves below the ice at the spot where the men stand.

The Eskimos, who are familiar with this manœuvre, always change their position the moment one of the crafty brutes goes down, and stand, harpoons in hand, ready to receive him when he returns crashing through the ice with deadly designs upon his craftier adversaries.

It is an easier matter to harpoon a walrus thus in the ice than it is to secure him, for here the "oweta" or float cannot be used to advantage, and it is no easy matter to hold a three thousand pounder of the sea. However, this is attempted, and when one or more harpoons are made fast to the walrus the ends of the lines are spiked down to the ice by stout spikes, and in this way the brute is very powerfully anchored; but, as I have before stated, in spite of all that can be done, he often breaks away and takes the lines with him into the deep.

Polar bear hunting is an extremely dangerous and exciting sport. An Eskimo rarely ever cares to tackle a bear single-handed, but two men, armed with lances, do not hesitate to attack this monarch of the north.