DR. KANE'S EXPEDITION. 501 



was within long rifle-shot, the animal gave a sluggish 

 roll to one side, and suddenly lifted his head. The 

 movement was evidently independent of me, for he 

 strained his neck in nearly the opposite direction. Then, 

 for the first time, I found that 1 had a rival seal-hunter 

 in a large bear, who was, on his belly like myself, wait- 

 ing with commendable patience and cold feet for a chance 

 of nearer approach. 



" What should I do ? the bear was doubtless worth 

 more to me than the seal ; but the seal was now within 

 shot, and the bear ' a bird in the bush.' Besides, my 

 bullet once invested in the seal would leave me defence- 

 less. I might be giving a dinner to a bear, and saving 

 myself for his dessert. These meditations were soon 

 brought to a close ; for a second movement of the seal 

 so aroused my hunter's instincts that I pulled the trigger. 

 My cap alone exploded. Instantly, with a floundering 

 splash, the seal descended into the deep, and the bear, 

 with three or four rapid leaps, stood disconsolately by 

 the place of his descent. For a single moment we 

 stared each other in the face, and then, with that dis- 

 cretion which is the better part of valor, the bear ran 

 off in one direction, and I followed his example in the 

 other." 



The month of April was about to close, and the short 

 season available for Arctic search was already advanced, 

 when Dr. Kane started on his grand sledge expedition 

 to the north. " It was," says the enterprising com- 

 mander, " to be the crowning expedition of the campaign 

 to attain the ultima thule of the Greenland shore, meas- 

 ure the waste that lay between it and the unknown 

 west, and seek round the furthest circle of the ice for 

 an outlet to the mysterious channels beyond." The 

 rigor of the climate, the difficulties of the country, the 

 failure of the caches which had been broken into by the 



