THE EETURN OF DAYLIGHT. 239 



ing, the steward informed me that another bear had 

 been killed, " and that he had tried to get in the deck- 

 house." Supposing that we had become careless in 

 lookout, or the bears had made an invasion, I turned 

 out and inquired. The facts were that a bear had come 

 near the ship at seven A. m., his presence being denoted 

 by the dogs retreating on board in a body and manning 

 the rail, barking at his bearship. While the quarter- 

 master was summoning Chipp, the bear, attracted by 

 the meat of his brother already hung up to a girtline, 

 attempted to climb up the ship's side to get on top of 

 the deck-house, but fell back. Seeing the gangway 

 board, and recognizing its use no doubt, he was about 

 to march up it, when Mr. Dunbar appeared at the rail 

 and fired at him. The bear, wounded onl}^, made off, 

 and the dogs followed him. He sat down to keep the 

 dogs at bay with his fore paws, bleeding very freely, 

 and in that position Mr. Dunbar dispatched him. He 

 was eight feet one inch long and weighed nine hun- 

 dred pounds, forming a welcome addition and change 

 to our larder. His stomach contained several small 

 stones resembling pieces of slate, and nothing else. 

 Alexey while out this morning saw a walrus, and 

 brought back a shell which he had heaved up. For a 

 wonder Alexey was without his gun, or else we might 

 have laid in a supply of dog food. Our fish, except 

 forty days' rations packed on the sleds, is all gone, be- 

 ing finished to-day, and we must now commence on our 

 prepared dog food of meat and bones supplied by Mr. 

 Newman at St. Michael's. We find considerable breaks 

 in the ice near the ship this morning, accounting for 

 the sudden cloudiness and haze at midnischt last night. 



Melville keeps on making the combination of the 

 steam-cutter's engine and boiler to the bilge-pump of 



