"B-a-ck ye-r t-to-p-sails, will ye?" shouted Amos Parr.
But the delighted Esquimau leader, who entered quite into the joke, had
no intention whatever of backing his top-sails; he administered another
crack to the team, which yelled madly, and, bounding over a wide chasm
in the ice, came down with a crash, which snapped the line of the
leading dog and set it free. Here Buzzby caused the driver to pull up.
"Stop, ye varmint. Come to an anchor," said he. "Is that a way to drive
the poor dogs?"
"Ye might have stopped him sooner, I think," cried the second mate in
wrath.
"Hai!" shouted the band of Esquimaux, pointing to a hummock of ice a few
hundred yards in advance of the spot on which they stood.
Instantly all were silent, and gazing intently ahead at a dark object
that burst upwards through the ice.
"A walrus!" whispered Buzzby.
"So it is," answered Amos Parr.
"I've my doobts on that point," remarked Saunders.
Before the doubts of the second mate could be resolved, the Esquimaux
uttered another exclamation, and pointed to another dark object a
quarter of a mile to the right. It was soon found that there were
several of these ocean elephants sporting about in the neighbourhood,
and bursting up the young ice that had formed on several holes, by using
their huge heads as battering-rams. It was quickly arranged that the
party should divide into three, and while a few remained behind to watch
and restrain the dogs, the remainder were to advance on foot to the
attack.
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