396 HE IS KILLED. 



however, my gun was in order, and as he faced me, I fired, 

 when he instantly fell. 



This bear, a male, was subsequently sent by M. Falk to 

 the National Museum at Stockholm, where, to this day, I 

 am told, he cuts a most respectable figure. 



It was our intention to attack the other bears on the 

 following morning, but this purpose was frustrated by a 

 renewal of the thaw that had so long marred our operations. 

 So enduring a one I never remember in the northern 

 forests, where the frost usually lasts from about the begin- 

 ning of November to the first or second week in April, and 

 is rarely interrupted by more than a very few consecutive 

 days of open weather. For two other days, indeed, owing to 

 continued rain, we were necessitated to remain idle ; but the 

 wind, which for some time past had been from the south- 

 ward, now veered to the opposite point of the compass, and 

 the frost set in again with some severity. 



At an early hour of the succeeding morning, therefore, we 

 started for the Ring, which was only three to four miles from 

 Ostanas. But a great alteration had taken place in the state 

 of the snow. Previously, from the mildness of the tempera- 

 ture, and the quantity of rain that had fallen, it had 

 not only sunk a foot or more, but was in quite a slushy 

 state; now, on the contrary, its surface was so hard frozen 

 as to support man as well as beast. Though in beautiful 

 order for our Skidor, there was little chance therefore of 

 fairly running down the bears. It was worth a trial, how- 

 ever ; for as the old saw has it, " nothing venture, nothing 

 have." 



But as the beasts had been undisturbed for some time, it 

 was thought not improbable we might be enabled to steal 



