Page:The Swiss Family Robinson (Kingston).djvu/437

Rh “We must certainly carry away the beautiful ivory tusks,” said I; “but make haste! the air feels so excessively close and sultry, I think a storm is brewing.”

“But the head! the head! we must have the whole head,” cried Jack; “just think how splendid it will look on the cajack!”

“And how splendid it will smell too, when it begins to putrify,” added Ernest; “what a treat for the steersman!”

“Oh, we will prepare for that,” said Fritz; “it shall be soaked, and cleaned, and dried till it is as hard as a wooden model; it shall not offend your delicate nose in the least, Ernest!”

“I supposed the walrus to be an animal peculiar to the Arctic regions,” remarked Ernest.

“And so it is,” I replied; “though they may occasionally be seen elsewhere; these may have wandered from the Antarctic seas. I know that on the eastern coast of Africa is found a smaller species of walrus called the Dugong: it has long incisor teeth, but not tusks; and certainly resembles a seal rather than a walrus.”

While thus speaking, we were actively engaged in the decapitation of the walrus, and in cutting off long strips of its skin. This took some time, as we had not the proper implements, and Fritz remarked, that in future the cajack must be provided with a hunting-knife and a hatchet; adding that he should like to have a small compass in a box, with a glass-top, fixed in front of the hole where the steersman sits. I saw the necessity of this, and I promised it should be done.

Our work being accomplished, we were ready to go, and I proposed to take Fritz and the canoe on board our boat, so that we might all arrive together; but I yielded to his earnest wish to return alone as he came: he longed to act as our avant-courier, and announce our approach to his mother; so he was soon skimming away over the surface of the water, while we followed at a slower rate.