SPRING JOURNEYS, 1001. 105 



The weather was kind to us on the way out, continuing still 

 and clear the whole time, and when that is the case one does not 

 take much account of the cold. Things go swimmingly then, both 

 for men and dogs, and one's daily marches have some sense in 

 them, no matter how slow the snow is, I had almost said. Even 

 with our heavy loads we covered eighteen to twenty-two miles 

 in the day, twenty being our usual figure ; and this is good work 

 at the beginning of a season, when the loads are at their heaviest. 

 Then, too, no matter what the going was like, we went on ' ski ' 

 beside the sledges, and this made progress much quicker. On the 

 bright ice, of which we came across a good deal, we slipped and 

 slid about, but all the same we generally stuck to our ' ski.' 



We took a line for the most western point we could see, and 

 camped in the evening not far from a small rock east of it. 



On Sunday morning, April 21, just as we were beginning to 

 get ready to start, we saw a bear in the distance making straight 

 for the camp. The dogs saw it too, and raised a -doomsday alarm, 

 but the bear was of the right sort, cared not a jot for their noise, 

 and came straight towards us at a jog-trot. I very quickly had 

 out my gun, and stood ready for it. At suitable range I fired, 

 and it sank to its knees, but rose again at once and set off at a 

 trot as before. I then gave it another shot, and this was too 

 much for it ; it made a dash round and died almost immediately. 



It was a fine specimen of a bear, an animal in its prime and 

 extremely fat. That it had enormous strength and was well 

 aware of it was very evident, for it came up to us with unheard- 

 of boldness. On the whole, I think it was the largest bear we 

 shot on the entire expedition, and had the finest skin we saw up 

 there. And such beautiful large white teeth it would have been 

 a joy to a dentist. 



The skinning was at once begun on, and the dogs crammed. 

 We took with us enough meat for the requirements of the evening ; 

 the rest we were obliged to leave. But not to take the beautiful 

 skin with us was hard indeed, still there was nothing to be done ; 

 we could not drag it with us all the rest of the spring. We used 

 often afterwards to talk of the ' Sunday bear,' and its size and 

 beauty became almost legendary. 



