352 THE VOYAGE OF THE JE ANNETTE. 



particularly in cleaning and spreading to dry seal skins, 

 in readiness for soles and moccasins. We must com- 

 mence to provide for our necessities of next winter in 

 that direction, for the amount of wear and tear on our 

 moccasins has been very great during the past winter.' 



May 15th, Saturday. — Again a bear. Mr. Dunbar 

 went out this morning to examine the bear-traps, and 

 saw indications of their having been visited, for all the 

 bait was gone, and the trap turned over without having 

 been sprung. He and Alexey and Aneguin followed 

 on the track, and after a long tramp saw two. One 

 got out of range too quickly for a shot, but the other 

 was keeled over and secured. Strange to say, it took 

 seven bullets to do the work, a sort of running fight 

 and firing being kept up for two hundred yards or 

 more. At the end of five shots the bear again stag- 

 gered to his feet and was making off, when two more 

 bullets finished the affray. The prize was a she-bear, 

 very thin — as Mr. Dunbar says, "all spars" (i. e. all 

 legs and neck), having evidently been nursing a cub 

 for some time, or having just weaned one. Very prob- 

 ably it was the full-grown cub that got out of range, 

 leaving his mother to face the music. Upon being 

 brought in and cut up, it was found that four of the 

 seven shots fired had penetrated vital parts, that is to 

 say, had injured such parts as would infallibly have 

 caused death within an hour, and yet the bear was 

 ready to get away to rough ice, and thus escape. 



In the afternoon the doctor and I went out with Mr. 

 Dunbar with a dog team to bring in the game, and I 

 thus had a fine chance of " seeing the country." Going 

 out S. E. a mile and a half we came to what had been 

 an opening, but was now covered over with young ice. 

 Following this to N. E. for a mile or so, we came to its 



