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The hunters now strung series of kayaks together with strong leather ropes, three skin boats being attached in a catamaran. Taking up the leather floats one by one, to the rear kayak of each series the hunters fastened the harpoon lines which secured the prey. Thus the animals were to be towed slowly ashore. Altogether eight walrus had been secured; four of these had fallen to the skill of Ootah.
At the mouth of Hudson Strait the captain again had the ship hove to for a day or so to trade with a number of Esquimaux, who had come in their curious canoes, called kayaks, from along the coasts of Labrador. Their insatiable curiosity and peculiar fur clothing very much interested the boys.
It wos about five years ago, more or less, I wos out in Baffin's Bay, becalmed off one o' the Eskimo settlements, when we wos lookin' over the side at the lumps of ice floatin' past, up got a walrus not very far offshore, and out went half a dozen kayaks, as they call the Eskimo men's boats, and they all sot on the beast at once.
Once they had again to cross a strip of open water in kayaks, Nansen was at the edge of the ice when he heard Johansen call out, "Get your gun." Nansen turned and saw that a large bear had knocked Johansen down and was sniffing at him.
The Esquimaux showed great attachment to us, and could hardly resolve to take a final leave. They called after us, "Come soon again, we shall always be wishing for you." Several of them, and among them our friend Uttakiyok, followed us in their kayaks to the mouth of the river.
There was a strong swell during the night, which violently agitated our boat. Arvarvik is about five miles in circumference. It is covered with the bones of whales, which the Esquimaux catch here in their kayaks. The coast is surrounded by a great number of small low islands, with deep pools between them.
When the kayaks then saw him, they all rowed towards him, and said: "He has fallen into the water." When they came to the place where he had fallen in, they all began looking about for him, and while they were doing this, he came up just in front of the bone shoeing on the nose of one of the kayaks which lay quite away from the rest.
At this point, where the Eskimos were for a time sheltered by the formation of the land, the Greygoose River had a double or horse-shoe bend; and the Indians, who knew the lie of the land well, thought it better to put ashore and run quickly over a neck of land in the hope of heading the kayaks before they reached the sea.
Angut, Okiok, and Simek led the way in kayaks, the kayak damaged by the seal having been repaired. The other men were forced to embark in the women's boat.
Before the intenser blue of its momentary shine had passed away, I saw Wilson stagger forward, and drop. And him and his lantern I buried deep there under the rubble ice. On the 13th March, nearly three months later, Clark, Mew and I left the Boreal in latitude 85° 15'. We had with us thirty-two dogs, three sledges, three kayaks, human provisions for 112 days, and dog provisions for 40.
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