STORMKAP. 255 



promising, but at closer quarters it changed its character. My 

 impression now was that the vegetation was extremely sparse, 

 and that the valley chiefly consisted of grit and stones. This 

 impression, however, might be the result of the bad weather, for 

 through driving snow the black crags of rock are the only things 

 that stand out in a landscape of the kind. The prospects might 

 be better up at the head of the fjord. 



So we turned in, and slept the sleep of the just ; but in the 

 middle of the night we were all aroused by the man nearest to the 

 door starting up from his sleep, and whispering, ' Here's a bear ! ' 

 He seized his neighbour by the arm, and began to feel for his gun ; 

 but, unfortunately for the tent, it was outside, and, in his sleepy zeal, 

 he cut a hole in the floor and dragged it in. Then he very care- 

 fully undid the lowest hook of the tent-door for the bear was 

 sitting just outside it, ready to fell the first person who should 

 put his head out and cautiously but resolutely peered through 

 the opening. There, close by the door, was the animal, quietly 

 sitting. It was one of the dogs ! Somehow or other it had got 

 loose, and the sound of its footsteps on the snow near the tent- 

 wall had assumed. such proportions in the ears of the man by the 

 door, that in his dreams he had seen a monster animal approaching 

 the tent. 



This occurrence brought down on his devoted head a good deal 

 of chaff, both that night and often afterwards in fact, whenever 

 he was seen rummaging in the tent for anything he required or 

 had lost, he was invariably asked : ' What, another bear ? ' 



