130 ADVENTURES IN THE NORTHERN SEAS. 



parent, and actually made a hearty meal off her 

 smoking entrails ! 



When we finished skinning her, the cubs sat 

 down upon the skin, and resolutely refused to leave 

 it ; so we dragged the skin, with the cubs sitting on 

 it, like a sledge to the boat, and, after another tussle 

 with them, in the course of which they severely bit 

 and scratched some of the men, We got them tied 

 down under the thwarts of the boat and conveyed 

 them on board the sloop. On deck, there lay the 

 skin of the bear I had shot the day before, and the 

 two cubs, on being hoisted up, seemed at once to 

 recognize in it the jacket of an acquaintance — per- 

 haps their papa's — and settling themselves quietly 

 down upon it, they went to sleep immediately. In 

 the course of the day we got a sort of crib made for 

 them on deck out of some spare spars and pieces 

 of drift-wood, and while they were being thrust into 

 it, they resisted so furiously that one could almost 

 imagine they knew they were bidding adieu forever 

 to the fresh breezes and the icy waters of Spitz- 

 bergen. 



