o’ the brown walruses, which is always the fiercest; and the moment he got the first harpoon he went slap at the man that threw it.  But the fellow backed out; and then a cry was raised to let it alone, as it wos a brown walrus.  One young Esquimau, howsiver, would have another slap at it, and went so close that the brute charged, upset the kayak, and ripped the man up with his tusks.  Seein’ this, the other Esquimaux made a dash at it, and wounded it badly; but the upshot wos that the walrus put them all to flight and made off, clear away, with six harpoons fast in its hide.”

“Busby’s tellin’ ye gammon,” roared Tom Green, who rode on the second sledge in rear of that on which Davie Summers sat.  “What is’t all about?”

“About gammon, of coorse,” retorted Davie.  “Keep yer mouth shut for fear your teeth freeze.”

“Can’t ye lead us a better road?” shouted Saunders, who rode on the third sledge; “my bones are rattlin’ about inside o’ me like a bag o’ ninepins.”

“Give the dogs a cut, old fellow,” said Buzzby, with a chuckle and a motion of his arm to the Esquimau who drove his sledge.

The Esquimau did not understand the words, but he quite understood the sly chuckle and the motion of the arm, so he sent the lash of the heavy whip with a loud crack over the backs of the team.

“Hold on for life!” cried Davie, as the dogs sprang forward with a bound.

The part they were about to pass over was exceedingly rough and broken, and Buzzby resolved to give his shipmates a shake.  The pace was tremendous.  The powerful dogs drew their loads after them with successive bounds, which caused a succession of crashes, as the sledges sprang from lump to lump of ice, and the men’s teeth snapped in a truly savage manner.

“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.