24 M'Keevor's Voyage to Hudson's Bay. 



at them. As he came near, the two hunters who had reserved 

 their fire gave him two wounds, one of which breaking "his 

 shoulder, retarded his motion for a moment ; but before they 

 could reload he was se near that they were obliged to run to 

 the river, and before they reached it he had almost overtaken 

 them. Two jumped into the canoe, the other four separated, 

 and concealing themselves in the willows, fired as fast as each 

 could load. They struck him several times, but they only 

 exasperated him ; and he at last pursued two of them so 

 closely, that they jumped down a perpendicular bank of 

 twenty feet into the river ; the bear sprang after them, and 

 was within a few feet of the hindmost, when one of the hunters 

 on shore shot him in the head, and killed him. They dragged 

 him to the shore, and found that eight balls had passed through 

 his body in different directions. 



Barentz, in his voyage in search of a north-east passage to 

 China, had melancholy proofs of the ferocity of these animals 

 in the island of Nova Zembla, where they attacked his men, 

 seizing them in their mouths, carrying them off, and devour- 

 ing them in sight of their comrades. " On the 6th of Sep- 

 tember," observes this interesting writer," " some sailors again 

 landed to seek for a certain sort of stone, a species of dia- 

 mond, of which a sufficient quantity is also found in the Isle 

 of Slates. During this search, two of the sailors, sleeping by 

 one another, a white bear, very lean, approached them softly, 

 and seized one by the nape of the neck. The sailor, not 

 knowing what it was, cried out, ' Who has seized me thus 

 behind ?' His companion, having raised his head, said, * Hol- 

 loa ! my dear friend, it is a bear !' and immediately rising, 

 ran away. The bear bit the unfortunate man in several parts 

 of the head, and having quite mangled it, sucked the blood. 

 The rest of the persons who were on shore, to the number of 

 twenty, immediately ran with their firelocks and pikes, and 

 found the bear devouring the body. On seeing the men, he 

 ran towards them with incredible fury, threw himself upon 

 one of them, carried him away, and tore him to pieces, which 

 so terrified them that they all fled. Those who remained in 

 the vessel, seeing them thus flee, and return towards the shore, 

 jumped into the boats, and rowed with all their force to re- 

 ceive them. When they had landed, and beheld this lament- 

 able spectacle, they encouraged the others to return with them 

 to the combat, that all together they might attack this fero- 

 cious animal. Three of them advanced a little, the bear still 

 continuing to devour his prey, without being at all disturbed 

 at the sight of thirty men so near him. The two pilots having 

 fired three times without hitting the animal, the purser ad- 



