'
`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 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.
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