CHAPTER XXV. 



AN AWKWAKD BEAR-HUNT. 



ON Wednesday, October 18, we broke camp in Baadsfjord; the 

 weather was so thick and snowy that we could hardly see in front 

 of us as we went along, while the going was as heavy as the first 

 time we came to the fjord. 



Just outside Baadsfjord we suddenly came across two living 

 beings standing gazing at us, but it was so dark that neither of us 

 could make the other out. It was only when they came towards 

 us to see what we were that I knew from the hang of their heads 

 and the jogging gait that they were bears. What we were they 

 did not seem able to decide ; and it was not till the dogs had 

 caught sight of them, and I had let go my team, that they made off 

 one due west, and the other south-east towards a large iceberg, 

 with the whole team at its heels. 



The bear soon realized that it would be caught up, and headed 

 for the iceberg, which was square in shape, slanting on one 

 side and vertical on the other, and fell away abruptly into a 

 lane at the back of it. But just as it was jumping the crack 

 and was about to scramble up the sloping side of the berg the 

 dogs caught it up, and it took to ' pig-walzing,' as Peder used 

 to call it. The dogs pressed it so close that before we knew 

 what had happened ' Lasse ' was under its claws, but his friends 

 came to the rescue so valiantly, tearing and dragging at its hair, 

 that it was glad to let him go and continue its way up the iceberg. 

 No retreat was possible from here ; forward the bear had to go if it 

 wanted to save its life ; and with the dogs full cry after it, it jumped 

 from the top of the berg into the lane some thirty feet below. 

 The water splashed high in the air, and the dogs, which had not 



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