THE COMMANDANT'S HERMIT LIFE. 451 



a shot in its left shoulder. This made it lose its footing ; it began 

 to slide, and at last rolled over and over for a couple of hundred 

 feet, till it was stopped by a stone. I followed it as quickly as I 

 could, and gave it another shot in the head, which completely did 

 for it, and then rolled it down to the bottom of the slope. It 

 was a very small and unusually thin he-bear. Judging by the 

 size and as I chose to imagine by the expression of its face, 

 it was possibly the same bear which visited me on March 25. I 

 set to work at once on the skinning, and this time accomplished it 

 quickly, for by ten o'clock the animal was flayed and portioned 

 out. I then went in and celebrated my victory in the usual 

 manner that is to say, by making coffee. 



* Next morning I dragged the skin and meat down to the hut, 

 and then went over the battle-field. I saw that the bear had come 

 quickly from the west, had mounted the ice-foot, and from there 

 come straight to the door of the hut, without once stopping. 

 Judging by the tracks, it must have stood a while in front of the 

 door to get scent. If this had happened at the time when I was 

 cooking my food, I could have touched it by merely stretching 

 out my arm, and I think it very probable that the bear was 

 there just at that time, and that the bubbling of the cooking- 

 pot prevented me from hearing it. Something had evidently 

 frightened it, for it had run a little distance to the east, and had 

 then climbed to the outlook, where it had sat looking down on 

 the hut. It had then come down to the latter, had passed the 

 depot, and had made straight for the bear-meat, where it had 

 eaten the remaining blubber and the greater part of the entrails. 

 When I began to move about the hut it took the rest of the 

 entrails away with it, and that is what it was eating when I first 

 saw it. 



' I must confess I thought this was a little too much ; I should 

 have the beasts coming into the hut to ine next, and as I am an 

 unusually sound sleeper, might have one upon me before I was 

 fully awake. My wish to have a dog, therefore, became still 

 greater, but for the present I had to be content with the wish 

 only, and all that I could do to increase my personal security was 

 to take my gun out of its cover in the evening, cock it, and put 

 VOL. I. 2 G 2 



