218 A SHE-BEAR AND HER CUBS. \J\larch, 



par excellence were to be seen carefully loading their 

 guns. No one was permitted to slam a door, or quit 

 the ship ; the utmost caution was observed. Our lead- 

 ing sportsmen were passed to the ' Pioneer/ one division 

 in readiness to push to the south-west, another party 

 to the south-east, the seven dogs and sportsmen about 

 south. I did not join the hunt. However, some men 

 there are who will spoil sport . who he was I know not, 

 but before the enemy was within shot, he fired. The 

 dogs however, on this occasion, did the business. Keep- 

 ing the old lady in constant alarm and worry for her 

 cubs, which the dogs dashed at, the sportsmen soon got 

 within sensible firing distance ; she fought nobly for her 

 cubs, but it was useless to contend with musket-balls. 

 All three were killed ! not however before the mother 

 had given our principal, but worthless dog, a scratch 

 which sent him away yelping, sickening him of such 

 work for the future : a Dane, not an Esquimaux : he af- 

 terwards committed thefts and other improprieties, and 

 ended his troublesome life by an act of suicide, with a 

 spring-gun set for a wolf. 



On the 17th of March a most decided change took place 

 in the weather, the temperature rising, at noon, to +5'5, 

 on the 18th to +21-5, and on the 19th to +14'6. I 

 consider the 17th, therefore, as the break of the season. 



We now cleared away the hole for the tide-gauge un- 

 der the stern, cutting through seven feet of ice. Owing 

 to the daily increasing weight of the surrounding snow, 

 the ice began to give under the pressure, and around the 

 ship in particular the snow became uncomfortably wet. 

 Taking the height of snow above the solid ice at fifteen 



