The Open Polar Sea: A narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States"Hayes, I. I. (Isaac Israel)
History
The Open Polar Sea: A narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States"
Hayes, I. I. (Isaac Israel)
Arctic regions; United States (Schooner)
While I was watching these movements with much interest, my companion
was intent only upon business, and warned me to lie lower, as the birds
saw me and were flying too high overhead. Having at length got myself
stowed away to the satisfaction of my savage companion, the sport
began. The birds were beginning again to whirl their flight closer to
our heads,--so close, indeed, did they come that it seemed almost as
if I could catch them with my cap. Presently, I observed my companion
preparing himself as a flock of unusual thickness was approaching; and,
in a moment, up went the net; a half dozen birds flew bang into it,
and, stunned with the blow, they could not flutter out before Kalutunah
had slipped the staff quickly through his hands and seized the net;
with his left hand he now pressed down the birds, while with the right
he drew them out, one by one; and, for want of a third hand, he used
his teeth to crush their heads. The wing's were then locked across each
other, to keep them from fluttering away; and, with an air of triumph,
the old fellow looked around at me, spat the blood and feathers from
his mouth, and went on with the sport, tossing up his net and hauling
it in with much rapidity, until he had caught about a hundred birds;
when, my curiosity being amply satisfied, we returned to camp and made
a hearty meal out of the game which we had bagged in this novel and
unsportsman-like manner. While an immense stew was preparing, Kalutunah
amused himself with tearing off the birds' skins, and consuming the raw
flesh while it was yet warm.
[Sidenote: HURRICANE.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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