90 ADVENTURES IN THE NORTHERN SEAS. 



fles, in expectation of getting a shot at him from 

 the rocks ; but, on gaining the top of the cliff, to 

 our great dismay we saw the bear a good hundred 

 yards at sea, and making great play for a neigh- 

 boring island about half a mile distant. He had 

 evidently winded us, or heard us trampling on the 

 hard snow : he was about 200 yards from us ; but 

 we both sat down on the snow, and both fired a 

 shot at his head as he swam ; the bullets ricochetted 

 on the water close past his ears, and feeling that 

 we must get to closer quarters, we ran for the boat, 

 jumped in, and pursued him with the oars. We 

 overhauled him much sooner than I expected, and 

 on getting within about forty yards we both fired 

 again, and one bullet going through his jaw, and 

 the other through his brains, poor Bruin floated 

 dead upon the water. We put the noose of a sea- 

 horse line round his neck, and towed him ashore to 

 divest him of the "white rug." While so satisfac- 

 torily engaged on the rocks, two bull walruses hove 

 in sight, floating rapidly by, asleep, on a cake of 

 ice. Lord David went after them in one boat, 

 while I walked up to reconnoitre the island, think- 

 ing there might perhaps be another bear about the 

 rocks : there was none ; but I saw, to my great un- 

 easiness, that a dense fog had come on, and the 

 sloop was nowhere visible : the current was carry- 

 ing the ice past the island at the rate of five miles 

 an hour from northeast to southwest, so that look- 

 ing for the sloop was perfectly hopeless, and it ap- 



