The Winter Night. 301 



me.' Now he resumed his march to the ship. W r hen 

 he was within 60 paces of the bow Peter fired. The 

 bear fell, but jumped up again and made off. Jacobsen, 

 Sverdrup, and Mogstad all fired now, and he fell among 

 some hummocks. He was flayed at once, and in the 

 skin there was only the hole of one ball, which had 

 gone through him from behind the shoulder-blade. 

 Peter, Jacobsen, and Mogstad all claimed this ball. 

 Sverdrup gave up his claim, as he had stood so far astern. 

 Mogstad, seeing the bear fall directly after his shot, 

 called out, ' I gave him that one ; ' Jacobsen swears that it 

 was he that hit ; and Bentzen, who was standing looking 

 on, is prepared to take his oath anywhere that it was 

 Peter's ball that did the deed. The dispute upon this 

 weighty point remained unsettled during the whole 

 course of the expedition. 



" Beautiful moonlight. Pressure in several directions. 



O 



To-day we carried our supply of gun-cotton and cannon 

 and rifle powder on deck. It is safer there than in the 

 hold. In case of fire or other accident, an explosion in 

 the hold might blow the ship's sides out and send us to 

 the bottom before we had time to turn round. Some we 

 put on the forecastle, some on the bridge. From these 

 places it would be quickly thrown on to the ice. 



"Saturday, December 23rd. \Vhat we call in Nor- 

 way ' Little Christmas Eve.' I went a long way west 

 this morning, coming home late. There was packed up 

 ice everywhere, with fiat floes between. I was turned 



