From Unalaska, we headed north for the Arctic Ocean. For one day of calm, we lay again off the little Eskimo village of St. Lawrence Bay and again had the natives as our guests. Peter made an elaborate toilet in expectation of seeing once more his little Eskimo sweetheart, but she did not come aboard. A little breeze came walking over the sea and pushed us on . On August 15, we sailed through Behring Straits and were at last in the Arctic.  
The straits are thirty-six miles wide, with East , a rounded, dome-shaped mass of black basalt, on the Asiatic side and on the American side Cape Prince of Wales, a headland of sharper outline, but neither so lofty nor so sheer. In between the two and in line with them, lie the two islands of Big and Little Diomede. Through the three narrow channels between the capes and the islands, the tide runs with the swiftness of a river's current.
 
The Eskimos constantly cross from continent to continent in small boats. In still weather the passage can be made in a light kyack with perfect safety. The widest of the three channels is that between Big Diomede and East Cape and is, I should say, not more than fifteen miles across. While we were passing through the straits, we saw a party of Eskimos in a skin boat paddling across from America to Asia. They no doubt had been on a visit to relatives or friends on the neighboring continent. We were told that in winter when the straits are frozen solidly, the Eskimos frequently walk from one continent to the other.
 
While we were sailing close to the American shore soon after passing through the straits, the cry of ", walrus!" from the mast-head sent the crew hurrying to the rail to catch a glimpse of these strange creatures which we had not before encountered. We were passing an immense . The shore was crowded with giant bulks, lying still in the sun, while the waters close to land were alive with bobbing heads. At a distance and at first glance, those on shore looked like a vast herd of cattle resting after grazing. They were as big as oxen and when the sun had dried them, they were of a pronounced reddish color. Those in the water looked black.
 
They had a way of sticking their heads and necks straight up out of the sea which was slightly suggestive of men treading water. Their heads seemed small for their great bodies and with their big eyes, their beard-like mass of thick about the nose, and their long ivory they had a distinctly human look despite their ugliness. They lifted their multitudinous voices in gruff, barking roars like so many bulldogs with a cold. There must have been 10,000 of them. They paid little attention to the ship. Those on shore remained as motionless as .
 
"Want to collect a little ivory?" Captain Shorey said with a smile to Mr. Winchester.
 
"No, thank you, not just now," replied the mate. "I want to live to get back to 'Frisco."
 
An ivory hunter among those thousands doubtless would have fared . Walrus are famous fighters. When attacked, they sometimes upset a boat with their tusks and drown the hunters. They are dangerous even in small . Moreover they are difficult to kill. Their thick hides will turn a bullet that does not hit them solidly. Though slow and unwieldy on land or ice, they are surprisingly in the water and a walrus will frequently tow a boat at a dizzy clip.
 
The region about Cape Prince of Wales is a favorite feeding ground for the animals. The coasts with , mu............