A BEAR HUNT 101 



Long before daylight Sipsu, Teddylinguah, and 

 Tukshu turned southward with heavily loaded 

 sledges, while our party headed northward, the two 

 hunters leaving us at Brooks Island. We, who were 

 after bear, skirted the island, then headed northwest 

 off the front of Humboldt Glacier, picking our way 

 through rough ice between the icebergs. 



After a few hours of hard work, bear tracks were 

 sighted. We gave chase, but they soon turned into 

 rafted, broken ice, so rough that further progress in 

 that direction with the sledges was impossible and 

 we were forced to turn back. Presently, on a large 

 pan of smooth ice, we came upon the tracks of a 

 number of bears, but all were so old that the dogs 

 failed to catch a scent, until at dusk we fell again 

 upon a fresh trail. Here the animals took the scent 

 and were off on a dead run. It was highly exciting. 

 Not a sound broke the dead silence save the panting 

 of the dogs and the occasional bump of the sledges 

 over small lumps of ice. 



Ilabradou and his dogs, not far behind, was quite 

 invisible through the cloud of steam that arose from 

 the bodies of the heated dogs ; I could not make them 

 out, in fact, until they drew close alongside Oxpuddy- 

 shou. Every moment now I hoped for a shot at the 

 bear, but disappointment came again. Suddenly the 

 trail, like the other one we had followed, turned into 

 rough ice, and thickening darkness compelled us to 

 relinquish the chase. 



Here we camped. The Eskimos fearing they 



