BIGGEST GAME IN ARCTIC 147 



ahead with all their might. Suddenly they scented 

 the trail — and then neither deep snow nor anything 

 else could have held them. Ooblooyah, with a crazy 

 team and only himself at the up-standers, distanced 

 the rest of us, arriving at the farther shore almost as 

 soon as the leaping bear. He loosed his dogs imme- 

 diately, and we could see the bear in the distance, 

 followed by minute dots that looked hardly larger 

 than mosquitoes swarming up the steep slope. Before 

 our slower teams got to the shore, Ooblooyah had 

 reached the top of the slope, and he signaled us to 

 go around, as the land was an island. 



When we reached the other side, we found where 

 the bear had descended to the ice again and kept on 

 across the remaining width of the fiord to the western 

 shore, followed by Ooblooyah and his dogs. 



A most peculiar circumstance, commented on by 

 Egingwah as we flew along, was that this bear, con- 

 trary to the custom of bears in Eskimo land, did not 

 stop when the dogs reached him, but kept right on 

 traveling. This to Egingwah was almost certain proof 

 that the great devil himself — terrible Tornarsuk — 

 was in that bear. At the thought of chasing the devil, 

 my sledge companion grew even more excited. 



On the other side of the island the snow was deeper 

 and our progress slower, and when we reached the 

 western shore of the fiord, up which, as on the island, 

 we had seen from a distance the bear and Ooblooyah 's 

 dogs slowly climbing, both we and our dogs were 

 pretty well winded. But we were encouraged by hear- 

 ing the barking of the free dogs up somewhere among 

 the cliffs. This meant that the bear had at last been 



