Chapter XIII

From Etah the “Windward” steamed to Northumberland Island, where the Eskimo women, children (except Koodluk´too), and dogs, with a few of the old men, were landed with their tents and enough food to last them a few weeks.

The ship with the rest on board started for a walrus hunt.

AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S father wanted to get packed away as much meat as possible, with which to feed his natives and dogs during the coming winter. AH-NI-GHI´-TO herself tells how these huge animals were hunted.

“_Dead Walrus on Ice Cake_”
]

“For the last ten days we have been hunting walrus. The walrus is a
large animal which lives in the water, but like the whale it cannot
breathe under water. It comes to the surface and fills its lungs
with air by taking deep breaths, then it closes its nose tight and
goes under, where it can stay many minutes without breathing.

“_Hoisting a Walrus on Board_”
]

“They love to crawl upon the pans of ice when the sun shines,
warming themselves and sleeping for hours at a time. It is then the
hunters go after them. The walrus are hunted with both gun and
harpoon.

“_AH-NI-GHI´-TO and Billy standing on the dead Walrus_”
]

“_Cutting up Walrus on the Ice_”
]

“Father sends out each boat with one or two white men and their
rifles, and four Eskimos with harpoons and floats. They row toward
the pan of ice where the walrus are asleep, coming up to them from
the side where the wind blows from the walrus to the boat. If they
came from the other side the walrus would smell them even in their
sleep. When the boat is close enough each Eskimo throws his harpoon
at a walrus, and all the walrus slide off the ice into the water.
Those struck by the natives have the harpoon head fastened in their
skin with a line to it. The other end of the line is fastened to a
float. Now the boat follows them, and every time the walrus comes up
to breathe one of the men with the rifles tries to shoot him. They
are very hard to kill because the hide is so thick and tough and the
fat is so thick under it. Sometimes if the walrus are full grown
they get mad and make for the boat, which they try to upset with
their ivory tusks. Even if they don’t upset the boat they often put
their tusks right through it, and frighten the Eskimos very much;
and I guess the white men are scared too, only they won’t say so.
After a walrus is killed the float is left fastened to him and we
come along in the ship and hoist him on board. He is not a pretty
animal but very large, and the meat is the best food for the dogs.
The walrus weighs more than a thousand pounds, but his ears are tiny
holes in his head, so small I can just put my finger into one. But
his mustache is terrible. I am glad father’s is not like it. The
bristles are as big around as one of mother’s knitting needles, but
only as long as my finger, and the ends are very sharp. I wonder if
Mrs. Walrus kisses him sometimes. Mother said she thought not. After
father gets about twenty-five walrus on board we steam alongside of
some large ice floe and all the animals are put on the ice and cut
up. This saves the mess on deck. The meat and skin and blubber are
kept separate, and packed away for dog food in the winter when
everything is frozen. When father has seventy-five walrus cut up he
says, ‘We will go back to Cape Sabine, if we can, and land the meat
and start all over again.’ I hope we won’t get caught in the ice if
we go.”

About the middle of July there were nearly ten thousand pounds of clear meat on board, and as the weather was fine it was thought best to take the “Windward” back to her winter home and there land the meat.

This was done without meeting any ice; but after reaching the little harbour the wind blew a gale for several hours.

AH-NI-GHI´-TO was on shore during this time and wrote about it in her diary.

“_July 16._—Fine day. Wind blowing hard in the evening. After dinner
mother and father and I went ashore, and I pinned some more pictures
on the walls of father’s room and his dining-room. When I got
through we went to the lake, where I spent some time sailing my
boats and digging in the water among the rocks. About five p. m. my
feet were very wet and we started for the ship. We saw her driving
away from the shore. The wind was blowing a gale so that we could
hardly stand up against it. But the ship sailed off out of sight. We
waited and ‘shivered our timbers,’ but she did not come back, so we
went to father’s house and a fire was made at once. Mother took off
my wet kamiks and stockings and I put on a pair of father’s socks.
We had supper in regular picnic style. A box on father’s trunk was
our table, a paper on it was our cloth, beans and corn in the can,
coffee we drank out of beer-mugs, and biscuit galore made our hearty
supper.

“We were just beginning to plan how we should spend the night, when
‘hoot’ went a whistle, and looking out of the window we saw the old
ship in the harbour. The wind was not blowing so hard now, so I put
on my kamiks and we went aboard. Here we learned that the ‘Windward’
had actually been blown from her fastenings, and the Captain had to
steam out to keep her from going on the rocks.

“To-night I feel as if I had been on a picnic.

“We leave here in a few minutes for Etah, and to-morrow I am going
to have a day with father and mother among the bird cliffs near
Etah.”

_Ah’-wik-so-ah (The Walrus)_

“_I wonder if Mrs. Walrus kisses him sometimes_”
]