UNDER THE MIDNIGHT SUN. 349 



showed fight to the clogs who stuck to him, givmg New- 

 comb a chance to put another bullet in him, tumbling 

 him over this time for good, and we hauled him into 

 the ship. He was eight feet eight inches in length over 

 all, and five feet ten inches in girth, and weighed about 

 eight hundred pounds, rather old, but fat and tender, 

 and a welcome addition to our larder. The head and 

 skin were given to Mr. Newcomb, at his request, as tro- 

 phies. The traveling, as I said before, was tremen- 

 dously bad. The surface of the ice-field around us from 

 a distance of two hundred yards outward is all broken 

 and hove up, the up-ended pieces of floebergs standing 

 at all angles and in all positions. The small amount 

 of snow which has fallen during the winter has been 

 swept in masses of drift in all nooks and crannies and 

 spaces, making a most imeven surface. Here and there 

 the crust has hardened enough to present an appear- 

 ance of strength. One trusts himself on it, and imme- 

 diatety sinks to his waist. To get out is difficult. To 

 get one leg out, the weight of the body must be brought 

 on the hands, and they in turn sink in the snow, and the 

 leverage is lost. Flounder, flounder, until by chance 

 one foot strikes a piece of ice underneath, which gives 

 support while the work of extrication is completed, fol- 

 lowed very probabl}^ by another sinking, and so on ad 

 nauseam. Frequently one comes to a more dangerous 

 place between two floe-piece edges, — for instance, an 

 end with a snow pit between, into which he sinks unex- 

 pectedly to his breast, and has almost literally to claw 

 himself out with his nails. In fine, even the dogs floun- 

 der and struggle in vain, and some of them have to be 

 helped out by man. Only the bears seem to have a 

 knowledge of these pitfalls, and they profit by it. 



I can now very well understand the enormous diffi- 



