A DESPERATE EIGHT WITH WALRUSES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CV, Issue 12536, 25 June 1901, Page 3

A DESPERATE EIGHT WITH WALRUSES.

In the March “ Idler ” i* an account of the “ Wellman Polar Expedition of 1893,” by Walter Wellman, from which th® following grapMc description of a walrus fight is taken:—In getting our supplies our men had gome lively adventures hunting walrus in the bay near Fort M’Kinley. As a rale, the walrus in a harmless brute. His attentions to the human beings who invade hi* realm are usually confined to swimming about the boat for half an hour or longer, alternately diving and coming to the surface again. Whenever his ugly head appears above the water, curiosity and goodnature axe seen bulging from Ms little round eyes. He act* as if this visitation of human beings, with their boats and oars and things, was a sorb of circus got up for his special amusement.. Bub wound a cow or calf, and you may have a different story to tell. That is what our men did one day. They phot a mother walrus who had a calf under her flippers, and were trying their best to secure the two carcases before they should sink in the bay. Suddenly they were surrounded by five or six big bulls, roaring and snorting in their anger at this murderous attack upon their tribe. One big walrus, with his weight of from twelve hundred to fifteen hundred pounds, which he is able to throw half out of water, that bis huge tusks, a foot and a half in length, may rip the boat arid capsize it, is a dangerous when one is out in a little craft only fifteen feet long. But here were a halfdozen bulls, all ferociously angry, and all maiking for the one small boat in which our three men pat. The Hves of those men depended upon the manner in which they met the onslaught. Fortunately they were experienced walrus hunters, and not a man of them lost his nerve. Bert Beritzen, h* of the mighty shoulders, gave'a few strokes with the oars, and sent the boat flying, so that the enemy might mot all be able to board at, the same instant. Paul Bjoervig, who knows walrus as he knows Ms own children, told Mr Baldwin, who had th* one gun in the party, when and where to shoot, that not an instant or a bullet might , be wasted. And he, good shot, quick as S cat, emptied the chamber of Ms;Winches, ter with telling effect. Bull after bull re* , treated with a ball in Ms eye,’the only spot ■ worth hitting in a walrus, for Ms skin is an armour-plate of gristle and blubber four inches in tMckness. The bay was red with blood, the waters were lashed into foam, and the bellowing of the bulls filled the air ■ with a horrid din. They finally come faster than. Mr Baldwin could take care of them. Then Bert and Paul rose up, each with an oar in Ms hand, and beat the beasts over the head. Every lime one of those ugly snouts rose by the side of the boat, with' the wicked tusks gleaming wMte, therie was an oar to meet- it, or perchance a leaden ball. For fully a quarter of an hour the battle raged, and then, to the great relief of our weary raea, the enemy suddenly withdrew, one by one, leaving two of their number floating lifeless upon the bay.