CHAPTER XIX. 



BJORNESUND AND ULVEFJORD. 



No sooner had we started next morning, than I noticed that my 

 dogs winded animals every now and again, and when that was the 

 case they pulled as if they had taken leave of their senses. 



Not long afterwards I saw a she-bear and two cubs about half- 

 way out in the sound. They were trotting southward, diagonally 

 towards us. The wind was unsteady, so that the dogs only scented 

 them now and then, but it was quite enough to animate them. 

 The going became better and better, we made quick progress, and 

 took a line for a point some way south in the sound. 



The bears had discovered us too, and it appeared as if they 

 wanted to cut us off from reaching this point, for they ran in that 

 direction as fast as they could lay legs to the ground. The dogs 

 soon saw them, and the pace, needless to say, did not grow less. 

 They are curious animals, these dogs : if once they take a thing 

 into their heads there is no getting it out again. Evidently they 

 meant to be first at the point, and first they were. When I pulled 

 up between some hummocks and overturned the load, the bears 

 were still three hundred yards off, but perhaps our way had been 

 a little shorter than theirs. 



I then took my rifle in one hand and my whip in the other, 

 and took my stand in front of the dogs to keep order. They saw 

 the bears coming up towards us all the time, and could hardly 

 keep in their skins. At first they were content with showing their 

 teeth and snarling, but as the bears came nearer they became more 

 and more excited, until that unmannerly scoundrel ' Svartflekken ' 

 began to yelp and make such a noise that all was up, and off 

 went the whole twelve of them. 



VOL. II. 241 K 



