126 ADVENTURES IN THE NORTHERN SEAS. 



Avith might and main to keep in sight of the bears, 

 but they got far ahead of us, and, the weather be- 

 ing rather thick, they had got nearly out of sight, 

 and we began to think they would beat us, when, 

 luckily, they got to the end of the strip of smooth 

 "fast 11 ice, and before them lay a great expanse of 

 soft mud, intersected with numerous little channels 

 of water and with much rough ice left by the tide 

 aground among it. This seemed to embarrass them 

 very much, as the cubs could not jump over the 

 channels, and the old bear appeared to be getting 

 very anxious and uneasy; but she showed great pa- 

 tience and forbearance with her cubs, always wait- 

 ing, after she had jumped over a channel, until they 

 swam across, and affectionately assisting them to 

 clamber up the steep sides of the icy places ; nev- 

 ertheless, the mixture of sticky mud with rough ice 

 and half-frozen water soon reduced the unhappy 

 "jungers" to a pitiable state of distress, and we 

 heard them growling plaintively, as if they were up- 

 braiding their mother for dragging them through 

 such a disagreeable place. 



We had got the boat into a long, narrow channel 

 among the mud, which contained water enough to 

 float her, and we were now rapidly gaining on the 

 bears, when all on a sudden the boat ran hard 

 aground, and not an inch farther would she go. 

 This seemed as if it would turn the fate of the day 

 in favor of the bears, as Ave did not think it possi- 

 ble to overtake them on foot among the mud ; but 



