104 Ou-C-laS Stories. fBcccmbcr, 1864. 



is frightened down by shouts and antic tricks in the way of motions. 

 This one is selected as the victim or prize, and, as the hunter gets near 

 it, he sees and follows it through the clear water. As often as it 

 comes up to breathe, his shouts and motions follow, and thus the pur- 

 suit is made till finally the poor duck is dead. Hall remembered that in 

 1861, when making a passage through the Beare Sound of Frobisher, 

 some of his Innuit friends could not be restrained from pursuing this 

 sport till they had deceived the ducks in the way described. "It 

 certainly is an economical way to secure provision without the use of 

 spears or guns." 



On the same day on which the walrus was secured, several of the 

 natives had a desperate encounter with a huge Polar, killing it while 

 three of their dogs kept the animal at bay. One of the lances which 

 had entered the animal, he drew out with his teeth, and gave their 

 best dog a terrible wound, cutting through the skin and flesh of his 

 neck as clean as with a sharp knife. 



Ou-e-la, on returning from these hunts, entertained Hall with 

 some huge bear-stories. With much emphasis he told of a woman who, 

 a few years before, had heard a strange noise outside her igloo, and on 

 leaving it, was seized by a large bear, who completely scalped her and 

 disemboweled her child. An old man in the igloo, although a cripple 

 in both legs, fastening a long knife to the end of a pole and cra^ding 

 through the narrow passage-way of the hut at the doorway, braced 

 his lance against the icy floor, when the bear, while springing toward 

 liis new victim, became his own executioner by receiving the knife 

 directly through his heart. Ou-e-la further said that he had once, 

 single-handed, killed a large bear with a lance only; at another time 

 lie had killed a bear of equal size with bow and arrow, without the 



