272 CONQUERING THE ARCTIC ICE 



up on high ridges, sitting on his haunches, and looking at us 

 with the greatest interest. At last he made up his mind to 

 approach for the purpose of investigating whether we were 

 worth eating, and he began to swim across, moving very 

 deliberately and playing with the ice on his way. We got 

 hold of our guns, and Mr. LefBngwell placed himself behind 

 one ridge, I behind another, ready to give the bear a fitting . 

 welcome. The bear came up just outside me, and I shot it at 

 a distance of seventy-five yards. It died on the spot, but fell 

 into the water, and later on we had to work hard to get hold of 

 the carcase. Storkersen improvised a boat of a single sledge 

 and the tent-cover, ferried out to the bear in it, got a line 

 attached to the bear, and paddled back to the floe. The device 

 worked beautifully, and after a strenuous effort we got the bear 

 on the ice, when it was rolled upon a sledge and triumphantly 

 hauled up to camp, where it was skinned. We cut out some 

 steaks for our own use and let the dogs eat all they wanted of 

 the remainder. 



But ourselves and our dogs were not the only living beings 

 who attended the banquet. Hundreds of seagulls had con- 

 gregated around the slain king of the Arctic and were enjoy- 

 ing a good feed, interrupted by shrieks and fluttering whenever 

 a dog came near them. 



We took two longitudes with the extremely ungratifying 

 result that we were 2 46' west of our observations on April 29. 

 although we had gone east and south ever since that date, 

 With the drift to the north, of which the latitude gave ample 

 proof, we saw plainly what we had escaped and what we 

 should have had to fight against if we had gone further out, 

 when we should have been correspondingly later in getting 

 back to land. 



As we could not use our raft for such wide lanes as this one, 

 we could do nothing but wait until it closed up, or till a floe 

 got caught and formed a bridge, and after a glorious feed of 

 bear we turned in to sleep while Storkersen kept first watch. 



Tuesday, May 7. He called us at n P.M. and told us that 

 the lane was closing up. Mr. Leffingwell and myself ran to have 

 a look. There was no doubt about it ; our tent was taken 

 down, things thrown on the sledges and lashed in a twinkling of 

 an eye. Then we were off, within ten minutes of the time 



