THE RETURN TO COLD AND DARKNESS. 461 



became impressed with the importance of looking at 

 the ship from a distance, and departed incontinently. 

 At eleven o'clock they were observed to be suspiciously 

 alert, and Mr. Dunbar, who was on the fore yard, 

 sighted a bear about a quarter of a mile from our star- 

 board bow, to which these hoodlums at once gave chase. 

 The alarm at once spread. Out rushed Mr. Collins, 

 Wilson, Sharvell, Ericksen, Mr. Dunbar, and half the 

 dogs. Of course the bear turned and ran, and being 

 out of range already I concluded his pursuit would be 

 another of the stern chases which we have had without 

 result. But the " hoodlums " stuck to the game, and at 

 one third of a mile from our starboard beam came up 

 with Bruin, and, yelping and dancing around him, so 

 disorganized his retreat as to make him wheel in circles, 

 charging at one dog and then at another, until so many 

 more dogs came up as to hold him at bay. Then se- 

 lecting a kind of well between hummocks he made his 

 stand, until Mr. Dunbar coming up stretched him out 

 with a bullet in his side and another one in the neck. 

 Upon examination afterwards we found that Dunbar's 

 first bullet had gone through the heart, cutting away 

 the lower end of it, and it explained why the bear had 

 not again risen upon tumbling at the first shot. 



Bruin was a perfect beauty ! As he lay upon the ice 

 on his belly and spread out, with his nose on his front 

 paws, he seemed as if asleep. Little or no blood was 

 on the surface of the ice, and the yellowish white of 

 the fur stood out in all its richness, while so fat was the 

 carcass that every curve of the body was as fully devel- 

 oped on the coat as if he had been cut out of marble. 



In a triumphal procession he was dragged home on 

 a sled, the "hoodlums" making a fine distinction be- 

 tween chasing a bear while alive and dragging him when 



