444 NEW LAND. 



taking care to keep a respectful distance between us. I soon saw 

 that this sort of thing was no use, and as I had no gloves and my 

 hands were beginning to feel cold I returned to the hut, properly 

 tied on my " finsko," got some mittens and my field-glasses, and 

 started oif afresh. 



' It was not long before I again saw the bear, which was 

 quietly sitting on a little knoll in manifest uncertainty what to 

 do. It was impossible to stalk it where it was, so I went 

 straight ahead, whereupon our former mode of progression 

 began anew. All the same I still had hopes of cheating it, for a 

 little farther on the hills fell back from the coast-line, forming a 

 kind of bay, and if only the bear would go on following the talus 

 westward, I should be able to cut it off at the head of this bay. It 

 was true that a gully led up from it, but there was such a steep 

 drop at the bottom that no living thing without wings could pass 

 it. Everything seemed to be going according to my calculations. 

 The bear went into the bay, and I closed the mouth of it. 

 I was already beginning to triumph when, to my astonishment, 

 I saw the bear head straight for the ledge, which it climbed better 

 than any cat, sticking its claws into the hard snow, just as that 

 domestic animal climbs a tree. "When it had got safely across the 

 ledge, and was well out of gunshot, the beast sat quietly down and 

 looked at me as I stood below hurling execrations at it in im- 

 potent wrath. It went slowly up the gully, and disappeared from 

 sight over the crest of the hill, whereupon I went home in disgust. 

 I could not discover where this bear had come from either, as 

 the heavy fall of snow had obliterated all the tracks ; but it was 

 plain that for some time it had been eating the blubber on the 

 back of the bear I had killed the previous day, for nearly all of it 

 was gone. I began to think that this was not a very reassuring 

 state of affairs, for I had been lying quite still inside the hut, and 

 ought to have heard the bear had it made the slightest noise. I 

 began to wish I had a watch-dog to warn me a little betimes. 



'At the same time it occurred to me that things were very 

 fairly lively at Bjorneborg, and that it began to answer to its 

 name ; but after March 25 the days passed by without any new 

 adventures. Morning after morning my diary begins with the 



