"You ran a very great risk," said I. "The walrus is an inoffensive creature; but when attacked and wounded it often becomes furious, and, turning upon its pursuer, can destroy, with its long tusks, a strongly built whale boat. However, thank God for your safety! I value that above a thousand such creatures. Now, what's to be done with him? He must be quite fourteen feet long, although not full grown." "I am very glad you followed me, father," said Fritz; "but our united strength will not remove this prodigious weight from among these rocks; only do let me carry away the head, with these grand, snow-white tusks! I should so like to fasten it on the prow of the cajack, and name it the Sea-horse." "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 putrefy," added Ernest; "what a treat for the steersman!" "Oh, we will prepare for that," said Fritz; "it shall be soaked and cleaned, and dried until 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. Black clouds meanwhile gathered thick and fast around us, and a tremendous storm came on. Fritz was out of sight, and beyond our reach. We buckled on the swimming belts and firmly lashed ourselves to the boat, so that we might not be washed overboard by the towering seas which broke over it.