An Exciting Polar Bear Hunt. 169 



laughed at. Two dollars were indignantly refused. Three dollars 

 were considered an insult. Four could not be entertained. On the 

 one hand, bear skins were set forth as the summit of human ambi- 

 tion : to possess one was a passport to great distinction. On the 

 other, bear skins were held to be mean, dirty, greasy, good-for- 

 nothing pelts. Those who were anxious to buy, spoke depreciatingly ; 

 those who wished to sell, extolled them. 



The bear-skin business was the rage of the Neptune for three or 

 four days. Nor were the transactions confined to cash. Walrus 

 tusks were offered and sometimes accepted in part payment of shares. 

 Eskimo ladies' dresses of deer skin, with long tails trimmed with 

 fancy furs that had cost many a plug of black strap, were reluctantly 

 given up, with an occasional harpoon, or spear, or lance, or model 

 kayak thrown in. 



The skins, with the heads and paws attached, were hung up on 

 oars that were lying above the deck, and left over night. Now, 

 our expedition geologist, Dr. Bell, was away up on the higher rock 

 ranges, three or four hundred feet above the water level, taking 

 photographs during the whole of the afternoon in which the bear 

 hunt took place. When he returned to the ship, in the evening, and 

 learned of the sport that we had enjoyed, he looked like an injured 

 man, but he prudently said nothing. On Wednesday forenoon the 

 doctor, with one of his most delicate surgical lances, set himself at 

 work removing the skin from the long hand-like paws, devoting 

 himself to the task with the relish of a surgeon performing a most 

 difficult operation. His conduct excited most agonizing suspicion, 

 Could it be possible, we asked ourselves, that the doctor contemplated 

 appropriating these skins to increase the attractions of the Ottawa 

 Geological Museum ? Surely not. We were all patriotic enough, 

 and were ready to make most any sacrifice in the interest of science ; 

 but the line must be drawn somewhere, and we had irrevocably 

 drawn it at polar bear skins. 



One of the men who, at great cost, had purchased a controlling 

 interest in skin No. 2, eyed the doctor with an air of one whose 

 property rights were being infringed. He could endure the suspense 

 no longer, and broke out : 



