56 HUNTERS AND HUNTING IN THE ARCTIC 



Everyone had seen the beast quite close to 

 us. Some even had seen the beast charge the 

 Commander, who had fled towards me. In 

 fine, everybody had seen the beast except 

 Recamier and myself, who still remained rather 

 incredulous. When we rose from the table, 

 however, we were compelled to bow down 

 before fresh evidence : distinctly outlined 

 against a high hummock was a yellow blot, 

 which, through the binoculars, I discovered to 

 be unquestionably the bear so vainly sought. 



It had come to a halt far beyond the edge 

 of the bad ice. Instantly our weariness was 

 forgotten, and again we bravely set out. This 

 time we wore those long wooden strips called 

 skis, which of late years the people of the Alps 

 have been importing from Norway. To say 

 that ski-ing is an accomplishment easy of ac- 

 quirement is to exaggerate. Venturing on them 

 for the first time, one appears neither very elegant 

 nor very much at his ease, particularly on the 

 rugged surface of a Polar floe, which resembles 

 nothing so much as a snow-field, liberally 

 besprinkled with boulders and miniature moun- 

 tains. It is an unfortunate delusion with most 

 beginners that ski-ing and skating are identical. 

 The precise difference between the two is 

 that with skis one glides forward without lifting 



