BEARS 71 



Again Swensen fired and finished the beast 

 with a second ball behind its shoulder. The 

 three surrounded their victim, manifestly ex- 

 ceedingly proud of their achievement. They 

 skinned it while I sent a boat to bring them back, 

 because the wind, piling up ice against the ship, 

 made the situation threatening. 



The skin was extremely large, the hair pure 

 white. The doctor examined it. There was a 

 hole in the right paw which evidently had been 

 made by a bullet of a small calibre. The edges 

 of the wound were already gangrened, and the 

 doctor affirmed that the wound was several 

 hours old. The Captain's bullets had made 

 large holes, the edges of which were still moist 

 with blood. Further, Ottersen, when questioned, 

 said that in skinning the bear he had observed 

 the intestines to be black and perforated. 

 Altogether it was undoubtedly the bear I had 

 wounded the preceding night. 



Swensen was profuse in his apologies at hav- 

 ing been compelled to fire instead of driving it 

 into the sea, and so affording me an opportunity 

 of shooting it. I, however, complimented him 

 upon the excellence of his tactics and the sang- 

 froid he had displayed when the bear turned 

 upon him. He informed me that never before 

 had he seen a bear charge a man in such fashion ; 



