THE FOURTH WINTER AND SPRING. 357 



there had been the trail of bears the whole way we went, there 

 was now not the sign of a track. Perhaps this was because the old 

 ice from the previous summer was unbroken, and the seals in 

 consequence had migrated to places where there was open water 

 at that time and where now consequently the ice was only one 

 winter old. At any rate, I think that this phenomenon must have 

 been connected in some way with the unfavourable conditions of 

 the previous summer. 



Later in the evening the wind dropped, and we went to rest in 

 fine weather. About eleven o'clock the dogs woke us up with a 

 start ; they were yelping and making such a noise, that we knew 

 that there must be something the matter. We ran out as quickly 

 as we could, but the expected bear was nowhere to be descried. 

 But that there really had been something going on we understood 

 at once, for the dogs' hackles were bristling and they were 

 looking north-westward, pulling and jerking at their traces, and 

 giving tongue as if it was a matter of life or death. We followed 

 the direction they were looking in, and saw a bear, far out in 

 the sound, trotting briskly southward. I ran to my team, and 

 sent them off one by one as fast as I could unharness them, so that 

 they might be loose and unhampered. ' Gammelgulen ' was the 

 first to go off the slip, the others followed quickly, and not many 

 minutes afterwards they reached the bear, turned it, and came 

 running inwards towards land. The bear was determined to go 

 up a difficult stony valley a little north of our tent, and, try as the 

 dogs would to prevent it, up the valley it went. Schei and I ran 

 full speed northward along the ice-foot, and soon heard that the 

 dogs had brought it to bay. We made a short cut across some hills 

 of grit, and, when we reached the top of one of them, saw the bear 

 on the other side of the valley, sitting on a high hilltop, which fell 

 almost sheer away. But on the north side it was accessible, and 

 here it was probably that the bear had climbed it. There sat the 

 King of the Icefields, enthroned on a kind of pedestal, with the 

 whole staff of yelping dogs standing at a respectful distance. I 

 tried a couple of shots, but overrated the distance, and the bullets 

 went over the bear's head. I then told Schei to go and shoot it 

 whilst I looked on at the further development of the drama. 



