BEARS 69 



because it serves to explain the course I adopted 

 when I wounded this second bear in Greenland. 

 After having assured ourselves that it had not 

 escaped by swimming, and must necessarily 

 be hidden amid the hummocks among which 

 it had disappeared, we anchored for the night 

 alongside the floe on which the other two bears 

 still roamed in search of seals. We burnt fat 

 and grease to attract them, but vainly, and at 

 five o'clock in the morning we retired to rest. 

 Towards midday we cast off and sailed to 

 double the berg. En route I killed at three 

 hundred yards a magnificent female bear which 

 had swum out to an ice splinter. It was not, 

 however, the bear of the preceding day, be- 

 cause it bore only one wound ; the one behind 

 its shoulder which caused its death. Most 

 probably it was one of the two animals we had 

 watched for throughout the night, while they 

 themselves were in turn watching for seals. 



Meanwhile a mist had arisen. Notwith- 

 standing this, the man in the crow's-nest suddenly 

 sighted a bear amid the hummocks in the direc- 

 tion taken the preceding evening by my wounded 

 bear. We watched it for a long time and finally 

 saw it hide behind an ice-hill. It was impossible 

 for the Belgica to approach the ice-field because 

 of the presence of numerous ice-blocks which, 



