DANGEROUS SPORT. 77 



and he would most certainly have inflicted 

 a serious wound, had it had not been for the 

 prompt assistance of two or three of his ship- 

 mates, who had followed him. The animal was 

 by no means one of the largest of his species, 

 being only six feet in length, and three feet 

 four inches in height. His stomach was quite 

 empty, with the exception of a garter, such as is 

 used by Greenland sailors to tie up their boat 

 stockings. In his left side there was a cicatrised 

 wound of considerable magnitude. From what 

 we saw of the activity and ferociousness of this 

 animal, added to the well-known strength of his 

 species, we readily gave credit to the accounts 

 of Barentz, and other early visitors to these 

 regions, and it may be considered a fortunate 

 circumstance for the hero of the Nile and Tra- 

 falgar, that a natural barrier was interposed 

 between him and the object of his chace, when, 

 in his youth, he ventured alone, over the ice 

 in these regions, in pursuit of such formidable 



game. 



The journals of the early voyagers in northern 

 latitudes abound with anecdotes illustrative of 

 their encounters with these animals, of which 

 the most remarkable occurred in Nova Zembla, 

 and is thus described by Gerat de Vere, in his 

 account of Barentz second voyage : 



