144 ADVENTURES IN THE NORTHERN SEAS. 



This was a large male bear, and I was a little 

 surprised at finding him so far from land, although 

 I have read and heard of their being found at much 

 greater distances. Indeed, there are instances on 

 record of bears swimming across and landing on 

 the shores of Finmarken, although I have always 

 imagined that those individuals must have got out 

 of their reckoning, or been drifted across in storms. 



I had intended to try to kill this bear with the 

 lance, but he looked so fierce and so formidable as 

 he came at the boat that / thought better of it, and 

 stuck to my trusty rifle instead of trying any ex- 

 periments of that sort. 



While flensing the bear, one of my boat's crew 

 was standing incautiously on the brink of the ice- 

 berg on which we all were, when suddenly several 

 feet of it gave way underneath him, and he went 

 over head and ears into the water, to the great mer- 

 riment of his fellows, but very much to his own dis- 

 comfiture, and I should think discomfort, forasmuch 

 as the temperature was just about freezing-point, 

 and we did not reach the vessel for several hours 

 afterward. This is an accident of very frequent oc- 

 currence to a novice ; an old hand always takes the 

 precaution of smashing down the hollow or under- 

 mined edges of the ice with a haak-pick or the butt 

 of a lance before he ventures to stand upon it. 



