United States or Saudi Arabia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
And now the difficulty was to stretch it; but by this time our inventive faculties had been pretty well sharpened, and we were not long in finding that we could make a perfect hoop by lashing together three seal ribs which we picked up on the beach; and, having fastened this hoop securely to the narwhal horn, we sallied forth to the north side of the island, where the auks were most abundant.
"Indeed, the narwhal is armed with a sort of ivory sword, a halberd, according to the expression of certain naturalists. The principal tusk has the hardness of steel. Some of these tusks have been found buried in the bodies of whales, which the unicorn always attacks with success.
But this set us to thinking again; and the birds being very tame, and flying low, it occurred to us that we might make a net, and fasten it to the end of our narwhal horn, which we had thus far only used while making our hut.
Here we halted, and the savages went to some great piles of stones, and brought out from under them a number of seal-skins, which were spread over some narwhal horns that were just like 'Old Crumply, and in a few hours they had pitched two tents, under which we all slept soundly, being very tired.
"My enemy, Grabantak that bellowing walrus, that sly seal, that empty-skulled puffin, that porpoise, cormorant, narwhal s-s-sus!" The old man set his teeth and hissed. "Well, my father?" "It is not well, my son. It is all ill. That marrowless bear is stirring up his people, and there is no doubt that we shall soon be again engaged in a bloody a useless war." "What is it all about, father?"
The thing which I first thought of was the dead narwhal with the great long horn; and I imagined that, if we could only get that out of his head, we should have all we wanted.
Uppy and one of the companions made their exit instantly and in great haste. "The fools!" he apologized. "One has to watch them like children, Mrs. Keith. Pardon me while I help them." She waited until he followed Uppy into the cabin. Then, with the remaining Eskimo staring at her in wonderment, she carried an extra bearskin, the small tent, and a narwhal grub-sack to Peter's sledge.
"The same, sir, who is seeking his prize!" replied the Canadian. "Were you thrown into the sea by the shock to the frigate?" "Yes, Professor; but more fortunate than you, I was able to find a footing almost directly upon a floating island." "An island?" "Or, more correctly speaking, on our gigantic narwhal." "Explain yourself, Ned!"
Another curiosity in the order is the tooth of the Narwhal, a modest cetacean, who is not much more than twenty feet long! I speak of the tooth, because the creature has commonly but one; a cylindrical-pointed tooth, spirally furrowed, whose length varies from six to ten feet, and which comes straight out from the extreme front of the upper jaw, like a soldier's pike.
She took down the long narwhal tusks that the dog harnesses were hung on. These were the tent poles. She and the twins carried all these things to the beach. The men stayed on the beach and packed the things away in the boats. The other women brought down their bundles from their igloos. There was room for everything in the two big boats. Only the skins were left on the sleeping bench in the hut.
Word Of The Day