THE RETURN JOURNEY. 417 



sledges. I then told Fosheim to take his gun, and go off to the 

 lane ; but he returned almost directly, saying he had seen nothing. 

 But what was that ? The black patch on the ice a few hundred 

 yards away from us ? It was indeed a seal, and had to be captured 

 at once. 



Happily we were, provided with a ' stalking-sail/ of the kind 

 used by the Eskimo. This simple appliance consists merely of a 

 white sail fixed to a kind of sledge, and is of sufficient size to hide 

 the man who is standing behind it; under cover of this the 

 shooter stalks the seal. 



Fosheim hastened to rig up our stalking-sail, but while he was 

 occupied with it, I suddenly caught sight of a bear stealing up to 

 the seal. Poor animal ! There it lay, enjoying life, little knowing 

 the double peril it was in. I at once told Fosheim that he must 

 look out, for he had a rival. He looked up quickly, saw the bear, 

 and exclaimed in amazement, ' Why, if there isn't a bear stalking 

 my seal ! ' 



Of course we at once agreed to give up the seal ; a bear had 

 many times its value for us. At the same moment the ever- 

 vigilant dogs got wind of the bear; I made haste to loosen the 

 traces, and away they went like rockets across the ice. 



I told Fosheim to throw himself on to his sledge and drive 

 after them, which he accordingly did, first dragging out his rifle 

 from the sledge, and off they went as fast as the dogs could go. 

 The distance was not very great, and Fosheim had hardly got the 

 cover off his gun before he was close on the bear, and all the dogs 

 hanging to it. There was short shrift for ' Bamsen ; ' the whole 

 pack was on his back. 



But to shoot here was no easy matter, the dogs were clinging 

 on to the bear like flies ; the chief thing, however, was to give it a 

 bullet, no great matter where. Fosheim fired while he was still on 

 the sledge, but did not do much damage, and the bear began to 

 move off. The dogs were so hungry and so pressing that I am very 

 certain the two teams unaided would not have been long in tearing 

 it to pieces. Fosheim had to shift his gun-barrel backwards and 

 forwards, up and down, many times before he dared fire, on account 

 of the dogs ; but in the end he got a chance of giving the bear 

 VOL. I. 2 E 



