82 HUNTERS AND HUNTING IN THE ARCTIC 



afterwards carried it in its mouth to the place 

 where it devoured it. The tracks enabled us to 

 reconstruct the whole drama as though it had 

 been acted before our very eyes ! 



In July 1909 I saw a bear on an isolated 

 berg eating a seal which had been captured in a 

 different way. We were navigating a wide lake, 

 having to the larboard an ice-pack, and round 

 about us small, floating ice splinters. For 

 three days of fog and wind we had been strugg- 

 ling against the ice pressure, and were holding 

 south in search of an easier passage-way. All 

 at once, Joe, who was on the bridge beside me, 

 pointed to a small floe four hundred yards ahead, 

 and exclaimed : ' Look, there is surely a bear 

 over there ! ' At first I thought he was joking, 

 because bears rarely occupy small floes, but after 

 examining with the binoculars a yellow patch 

 discernible with the naked eye on the floe, I 

 found that he was correct. To my amazement, 

 I also observed a seal rolling itself in the snow 

 on another floe quite close at hand. Meanwhile, 

 the bear was busily occupied on the carcass 

 of a seal, the blood of which stained the 

 snow. 



I immediately gave orders for the Belgica 

 to approach at speed. It was impossible the 

 bear could escape us, seeing that it occupied 



