They cut up his hide into long lines to attach to the harpoons with which they catch himself, the said harpoons being pointed with his own tusks.

This tough hide is not the only garment the walrus wears to protect him from the cold.

He also wears under-flannels of thick fat and a top-coat of close hair, so that he can take a siesta on an iceberg without the least inconvenience.

Talking of siestas, by the way, the walrus is sometimes "caught napping." Occasionally, when the weather is intensely cold, the hole through which he crawls upon the ice gets frozen over so solidly that, on waking, he finds it beyond even his enormous power to break it.
In this extremity there is no alternative but to go to sleep again, and--die! which he does as comfortably as he can.

The Polar bears, however, are quick to smell him out, and assembling round his carcass for a feast, they dispose of him, body and bones, without ceremony.
As it was impossible to drag this unwieldy animal to the ship that night, for the days had now shortened very considerably, the hunters hauled it towards the land, and having reached the secure ice, prepared to encamp for the night under the lee of a small iceberg..