THE COMMANDANT'S HERMIT LIFE. 443 



apparent, as all the tracks were levelled by the drifting snow. It 

 had thoroughly inspected Schei's depot, and I am pretty sure it 

 was the bear which I had heard at nine o'clock. If my surmise is 

 correct, it must have been about the place from nine to half-past one. 



' The rest of the day I spent comfortably indoors, burning the 

 "Primus," cleaning my gun, reading, eating cake, and drinking 

 coffee. 



'The next day, March 25, was Sunday, and as it was still 

 snowing, I lay in the bag the whole of the forenoon, and continued 

 my attack on the cake and coffee, and therewith made an end of 

 the former. It was one of the pleasantest Sunday mornings I have 

 ever spent ; but at one o'clock I thought it was time to get up, 

 and accordingly lighted the " Primus " in order to warm the hut 

 while I was putting on my " finsko." Meanwhile I felt curious as 

 to the state of the weather, raised the door and crept out, my exit 

 being anything but noiseless. I was soon satisfied as to the 

 weather, for it had not changed. I stood a little way in front of 

 the door, and looked out across the sea-ice, where everything was 

 white, and there was not a living thing to be seen. Suddenly 

 I had a feeling as if there was something wrong behind my back, 

 and this feeling grew so strong that at last I turned round, and 

 in so doing saw a bear standing about fifty yards away, on the 

 other side of the hut. It looked as if it had been coming towards 

 me, but had stopped when I turned round, and we both looked 

 each other hard in the eyes. It was a very little bear, and it 

 seemed to me then, as it seems still, to have had a curious half- 

 ironic, half-wicked expression in its face. 



' I was the first to regain self-possession, and scurried like a 

 rabbit into my hole, caught up my gun and dragged off the cover, 

 expecting all the time to be seized from behind and carried 

 wriggling outside. But when I went out again I saw that the bear 

 had not thought of anything of the kind. The short time I had 

 taken to fetch my gun, it had taken advantage of to make off up 

 the hillside. I started after it, but could not get along very 

 fast, as I had not tied the long braids of my "finsko," which 

 trailed behind me. Meanwhile my adversary took things very 

 coolly, and stopped at intervals to look at me, though always 



