A Bear Hunt. 9 



brute. The dogs crowd in and take hold wherever 

 they can. The bear grows frantic in his struggles to 

 punish his adversaries. At last he lies at full length 

 panting upon the snow. Then it is that some hunter 

 ventures to leave his dog-sled and try to kill him 

 with a walrus tusk. No sooner is he sure that the 

 animal is dying than he hastens to get a drink of 

 warm blood. Then a long cut is made down the 

 bell\- of the animal with the points of the walrus 

 tusks and the skin is pulled and pushed off with their 

 hands. All hands feast upon the warm grease that 

 is inside the animal, and after that they divide the 

 meat and take it home. 



I will now explain that the breaking up of the ice 

 I have told about is not from thawing. In the 

 warmest time we ever saw in that part of Green- 

 land where I came from, it never thawed enough to 

 make the water run in streams. A few bare spots 

 were melted off on the rocks and high points of 

 land. Once in a while the snow would melt enough 

 to drip a little, and form icicles, but not often. It 

 was cold, cold, bitter cold, all the year round, and 

 the people in this country can hardly have an idea 

 of it, even in the coldest weather here. From this 

 we see that there could be no chance for heat 

 enough to make the thick ice break up by thawing. 

 Have you ever seen a tub which was full of water 

 frozen nearly solid. ^ Then, perhaps you remember 

 that the middle was heaved up and cracked to pieces 

 by the frost. This, I think, js what takes place in 



